I don't disagree with your point about nimbyism, but I don't think that proves allowing corporations to buy those same finite assets up would be any better. Then you just have the same asset bubble but instead controlled by a corporation with even less interest in affordability or maintaining a community.
Corporations will deploy massed capital in pursuit of higher profit. If we stop all meddling in the housing market, this will result in much more new housing being built.
We need millions of new units. The capital for that can come from individuals or corporations, but corporations are just a way to pool capital and seems like a quicker and more effective approach.
No corporation in any industry has ever cared about community and affordability. And yet these things have emerged multiple times wherever sane, free markets exist.
