Property owners will just form a "trade" of sorts with leases filled out with each other for a nominal annual fee. I live in upstate NY and it EASILY takes me 2 months to find a tenant who isn't a complete bum/criminal.
.........as a full time developer for over 40 years, I can guarantee that “NEW” projects will just STOP.
In some cases, construction already under way will just STOP.
Even in the best of time for landlords, and I once owned hundreds of units, owning, maintaining, renting of living units is no cakewalk.
We had a saying with respect to apartments....”if it has a bed in it, forget it” and develop/build something else.