This is the real problem. People on Lemmy like to lump “landlords” into this one big group. If someone buys a second house as an investment property and rents it out to cover the mortgage and if fair and responsible to the tenants, I don’t see why that’s a problem. They could have put the money in a brokerage account in stocks. Then some equity firm buys the house instead. The renter rents either way. But in the first scenario the property still belongs to members of the working class. In the second scenario it belongs to the equity firm, slowly eroding middle class residential ownership, and if that continues soon all property will belong to corporations rather than individuals.

Also no one person owns a large scale apartment complex. Pretty sure those are all owned by corporations.

And that’s really why people should be upset. Not uncle Bob renting out his in-law unit so he can make a few extra bucks. (What’s he supposed to do, let it sit unoccupied when that’s housing someone could use?)