The reddit user literally just completely made up the "to circumvent local government restriction" bit (and gets sent to the front page of r/all).
Whenever I see a post like this, I wonder if it was done by an individual or as part of a paid propaganda effort.
Link because I'm not a lib
Archive link in case it gets deleted
The sources literally linked by the OP:
Business Insider
The Guardian
Actually, you need to pay the current property owner multiple times for the opportunity to have your offer considered.
To do otherwise is comulnizm