What happens when private equity buys homes in your neighborhood

Except: corporate landlords SHOULD be banned. And PE should be, too.

Banned and reeducated.

So we should have smallhold landlords that frequently skirt rental regulations and are difficult to hold accountable?

How do you define that? Plenty of small landlords are "corporate".

In Europe, landlords violate regulations much less often than in the US, because the tenants renovate and maintain the properties, instead of the landlords. It's much cheaper to rent in Europe, because it's much cheaper for a tenant to fix something small themselves, than involve a landlord, a property management company, and a service company.

Any sane one is. Your accountant will make you become a corporation if you are not. It is really cheap to become a corporation and there are too many financial and legal advantages to corporations to not be one (see a lawyer for details - there are many different incorporation options with different pros/cons)