What would be the economic impact of disallowing the renting of housing? I'm just trying to think through the implications of the theoretical scenario of disallowing the renting of housing.
My goal would be to reduce wealth inequality - as rent is generally a wealth transfer from the poor to the rich - but this would pull on so many threads in the economy that I wanted some other opinions.
So a builder or investor could own an apartment complex and sell the individual apartments, and the buyers could pay in installments that would be essentially the same as renting, from the perspective of the person living there, with the difference being that after 10 or 20 or 30 years the occupant would own the apartment and not owe anything but taxes and maintenance.
If someone knows that they are only going to stay someplace for a year or two then the buying/selling process would need to be much simpler and cheaper to avoid all of the transaction costs and paperwork.
How to distinguish apartments from hotels is another question.
If the required downpayment is substantial there will be fewer households if renting is illegal. This means the average number of people per household would be greater. Some people would be living in larger households as they save for a downpayment. If the required downpayment is zero then price volatility would imply that some home sellers have a debt from an earlier home ownership experience. If experience shows that debtors tend not to pay then the required downpayment will be substantial. The most likely outcome is substantial required downpayments and a greater average number of persons per household.