It is dystopian. And in some ways it’s a return to feudalism. For a brief time — since the Industrial Revolution — people found ways to build wealth without acquiring a ton of land. Now in the past few decades we’re seeing people go back, heavily, into land as an investment. This trend started before Airbnb existed but now it’s accelerating like crazy.
Everyone knows that housing is scarce and that construction has slowed down dramatically. So everyone who can afford to is buying up all the housing because they know it’ll only skyrocket in value over time. This is bad not only because it makes housing unaffordable but because it locks up so much capital in a non-productive form.