it's not renting that's being criticized here; it's specifically landlords.
renting is perfectly fine.
what is not fine, is that a public necessity is tied to a private individual or company that can charge whatever they want.
that last part is the problem.
vienna often gets cited as a notable example for large scale, affordable public housing projects, and while that is fair, the reason those are affordable, is because they are owned by the public, i.e. the city of vienna.
THAT'S how rent is supposed to work: for the people, by the people.
it's how a society gets affordable housing, not this price gouging nonsense that neoliberal politics has popularized...
..what are you talking about?
the policy is the solution to the problem.
which means the problem very much is landlords!
the entire purpose of policy is to provide legal means of regulating what is NOT working in society without it.
and the reason policy is required, is because landlords, in general, are greedy bastards that see their fellow brothers and sisters as nothing more than sacks of money walking around. their ghouls. parasites that provide absolutely nothing of value, and demand payment for "the privilege".
when people talk about landlords, it's never about the sweet old person renting one flat to supplement their income slightly. it's always about the ruthless property conglomerates that own half a city, or the random guy owning 15 apartment complexes.
renting out surplus rooms, or a second home is not an issue, in general, because the people that do so usually rent to others in a very similar economic bracket as themselves. that means they know, from personal experience, about how much some in that bracket can afford. so prices stay pretty much reasonable.
but that's not true for, let's call them, "Big Landlord". they don't give a fuck, if anyone can afford the units they provide. these are the assholes that only see 'funny number must go up!' and literally nothing else.