Also consider contacting houses that look vacant, simply door knocking in a neighborhood that you are interested in and talking to the homeowners in a genuine way, For Sale By Owners is another potential, using an App like Nextdoor or Facebook pages/groups related to local real estate and just telling the group what you are looking for, contractors also know about houses coming on the market soon and so do property management companies, and finally garage sales are a good way to find off-market properties as people prepare to sell.To Your Success!

Given how the housing authority does their rent price determination on individual units, and government ran programs are never beacons of efficient processes, it can go either way.Note, the examples I speak of only relate to C-Class and below areas.

Quote from @Nicholas Dillon: Hi guys,I am a relatively new RE investor.  

According to the article, around 5% of the properties are being bought by investment companies, leading to concerns that regular homebuyers are being priced out of the market.1) Do you think this could become a long-term issue, given that the current percentage of investor-bought properties is relatively small?

It’s more of a solution for owners who need liquidity but don’t want to sell their property outright, interacting with  advisers, agents, and other related people that are expensive and may be hard to connect with, or take on additional debt, including such debt like loans from banks and offline interactions, which require valuable time.

This is based on demographics/interests including age, profession, income etc.. 

I'm also relatively young and interested in some more "challenging" investments (although recognizing that I would have to do everything remotely and source through a property management company like yours).

Somewhere there is a relative scenario where it’s not worth it.  

Second, even in countries that do allow foreigners to buy investment properties relatively easily (like Spain), you typically have to come up with much larger down payments (like 40%+) as a foreigner.

Related, you will want a contractor who is used to doing projects like this on schedule and on budget.