You can't compare multi-year private tenancies with day rate car rentals. If I want to secure office space for my business, it will not cost me 2x the cost of taking a mortgage on the property to do so.
Residential property letting is broken, due to lack of supply, but the people who were in in more than five years ago are making big money from escalating rents, and so will come up with endless excuses as to why their good luck is shrewd investment, or hard work... anything so long as the situation continues.
Meanwhile, that lack of supply means new private landlords can't get in, let alone people who might want to live in a house they own. (I'm not one of those "ban landlords" people.. private landlords are an important part of a working market, but first there has to be housing to let)
Governments are scared to do anting much with housing supply for fear of reducing the "value" of voters' houses, but until people stop pretending that price inflation is somehow not poisonous if it's applying to something they happen to already own one of, we'll keep spiralling the drain, assuming the economy doesn't just break under a weight of property debt that cannot be serviced by economic output.
Ask people what they'd really prefer: a house that's "worth" £50k less, or their kids being able to find a place to live. (and no, the answer is not equity release..)