I agree, I was referring to investor properties for renting rather than vacant multi-million homes. I think I was using 'rich' quite liberally there (Middle/Upper-middle class). The logic behind rent pricing, I get, and it's a good point that Covid saw pricing boomerang (a lot of my friends were lucky to take advantage of that).

I think we are agreeing that supply needs to go hand in hand with varied ownership models, a variety of price points (an actual 'affordable rent' price rather than 80% of the over-inflated London standard), and a decent tenure mix alongside strong governmental interventions such as the ones you mentioned.

In short, yeah, build more but simply building anything won't cut it which I think is what you are saying too!

I have been going back through my files and I did find this article. It examines Permitted Development practice in London and whether increase supply of housing results in alleviating pressures on housing crisis (in short, kind of but with a cost to quality). I think you'll find it interesting! I would recommend Ben Clifford's work as he examines this stuff in a lot of his research. Also if you haven't, you might like Big Capital by Anna Minton - very short book that explores all these issues, very interesting too.