Yes but it worked for several decades without problems. Rents go up everywhere because of inflation. People buy less because of inflation (yes there's other factors like online sells, but there's enough people still going into shops, they just can't afford shit anymore). I don't want to judge their individual decisions but most cities are currently dying after decades of prosperity. 

 Yep. That's correct. Indeed the decision to sell property and rent it was because of financial reasons and those are I would assume 90% of cases linked to inflation. Inflation is the reason for so many problems, it's hard to comprehend.