Or they'll just raise rent further like they already do. Landlords already want empty units filled because in their eyes they are losing money on it being empty. They already have incentive to fill the units.

Thinking that'd they'd lower rent to fill more units rather than just raise prices further for current and future tenets to compensate additional expenses is frankily naive.

It's not like landlords are gonna run out of people to charge more money for. It's not like people won't just lower their standard of living further to compensate for the increase like what happens already.

The only solution to high rent and the housing crisis is to loosen zoning laws and allow the building of both more affordable government housing and general housing and apartments in cities and high population areas to have supply meet or exceed the demand. We know from studies and real world examples that this approach works and is very effective.

Imposing a tax on vacant units would make it more risky for potential investors and companies to build more housing and thus the rate and speed of new homes being erected would slow even further due to this tax.

On paper this tax makes sense, but it ignores the reality of how landlords and multinational companies that build houses and apartments currently operate