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How do they drive up rent or home prices if they dump houses back on the market then? If neither supply nor demand changed as a result, why would the price change?

Also, why does it happen with houses (that provide crappy average returns because they don't capture the effects of productivity growth i.e. do not create real rent, they are more like crypto), not with stocks?

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> If neither supply nor demand changed as a result, why would the price change?

If I buy all the lithium supply in the world and sell it back, what price do you think that I will charge?

Monopolies and cartels make prices go up.

You wont change price by buying and selling back. Because neither supply nor demand have changed. You can keep prices up by buying and hoarding over a long time, but it means locking up capital in something that doesn't generate return... And wait, this has been tried in 2008 :) didn't end well especially for investors because no Ponzi scheme can run indefinitely. Eventually the stream of stupid money runs out because there are no bigger fools left, and to generate returns you need to sell, and if you sell, market falls.

BlackRock does not have a monopoly on unoccupied housing stock and acquiring such a position would be extremely expensive.

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