The empty homes are largely where people don’t want to live.

You have cause and effect completely backwards. Housing has become an investment vehicle BECAUSE it is expensive.

And it is expensive to build because government policies make it expensive to build. Safety codes, building codes making previously common types of housing illegal, environmental reviews, zoning, “affordable housing” requirements, development permit fees and delays.

I’m not saying all of those are bad but they have a cost but the legislators and bureaucrats who impose them don’t have to pay them.

there's no need to build more housing if you're not actively increasing the demand which would naturally decrease due to birth rates.

hey look, I made a problem, why aren't they fixing it? because they're evil

in burgerland we built 1.6 million houses last year, and imported three million people. Your suggestion is, well, keep importing millions more people than there are homes being built yearly, but that doesn't matter because le evil KKKapitalism is what's truly behind housing inflation. Import ten million, execute the kulaks

maybe, before we overthrow capitalism for the global communist revolution, we could - just hear me out - TRY the easier solution?