This does not drive down prices. What is different now is that the properties get leveraged for loans to purchase more properties. The loans are secured against future rents and the landlord cannot lower a single rent in response to market demand because it would signal to the lenders that it is an inflated asset, causing a domino effect on all the other loans. The property owner is would rather the property stay empty, take the loss, than lower the rent and risk their loans. This is a huge problem here in Toronto where REITs are doing this and causing rents to continuously ratchet up. Nobody wants to talk about it because everyone's retirement funds are full of REITs.