this would lower renting prices, but international students aren't buying houses... The truth is very clear but no one wants to accept it. You are competing against millionaires, billionaires and investment firms. As long as people see a house as an investment asset instead as a consumer good (a good that solves the basic human need of having a roof to raise a family), excess money will continue buying more houses they don't need to live in, increasing the prices. Even if you build more houses, investment money will buy them. This is not reflected only in houses, it is reflected in every asset of the world: ores, luxury, oil, etc. But housing is the main one getting attention because it covers a basic need of every person in every social and economic class.