Ignoring the race bait, reducing population would indeed reduce demand, and therefore rent prices, but there's another factor at play: The landlords cannot reduce rent because the value of their property would fall, and the loss would be worse than the cost of maintaining a vacant apartment. This is why rents don't go down, even after the mass exodus from the big cities.

By taxing vacancies, the loss can now be worse when the property is vacant, so landlords are actually incentivised to adjust rent until their property is occupied. This could induce a small housing crash, but homes renting at their actual value will make the city more inviting for non drug-addicts and non thieves to move in.

Ignoring the race bait, reducing population would indeed reduce demand, and therefore rent prices, but there's another factor at play: The landlords cannot reduce rent because the value of their property would fall, and the loss would be worse than the cost of maintaining a vacant apartment. This is why rents don't go down, even after the mass exodus from the big cities.

By taxing vacancies, the loss can now be worse when the property is vacant, so landlords are actually incentivised to adjust rent until their property is occupied. This could induce a small housing crash, but homes renting at their actual value will make the city more inviting for non drug-addicts and non thie es to move in.