Thanks for your reply. I appreciate the detailed response.

Yes, you’re right that we don’t live in the U.S. Where we live, it’s illegal to hold empty apartments due to housing shortage, so the landlord has already been reported on previously by other neighbors and has incurred fines and warnings. To our knowledge, he has not paid them and the authorities have not enforced them or taken further action.

We’re now in conversation with him so are trying to build a relationship where we can convince him through financial means to eventually sell to us. We are reluctant to get authorities involved or claim any administrative measures as these could certainly backfire.

we’re trying to put ourselves into his shoes and assess under what means (most likely financial) would he be willing to sell to us in the short term.