While I somewhat agree with you, I feel compelled to mention that the most derisive term in the lexicon of Economics is "rent seeking behaviour" when they want to describe the behaviour of an actor in an economic system as non-productive, and parasitic, and that terminology is not an accident. It comes from the tendancy of land or property rental markets to quickly become non-productive exercises in wealth extraction by landlords.
While it's definitely possible to screw up a market via government intervention, I don't think it's really true that there's a fixed pie here that is being cut up and redistributed by this policy. I think it's better to be thought of as intervening to stop the rental market from going off the rails.
Buying land or property in Vienna is expensive, but it's actually not significantly more expensive than comparably sized German cities which don't have comparable social housing programs.
While it's definitely possible to screw up a market via government intervention, I don't think it's really true that there's a fixed pie here that is being cut up and redistributed by this policy. I think it's better to be thought of as intervening to stop the rental market from going off the rails.
Buying land or property in Vienna is expensive, but it's actually not significantly more expensive than comparably sized German cities which don't have comparable social housing programs.