Eli5: Why do banks own houses?

Question

When and why did banks start owning houses and land? When did mortgages start?

In: 3

Answer 1

Because land is finite, money is infinite. This happened because they dropped the gold standard, which was finite and therefore stable, then introduce fractional reserve banking aka printing money.

Also, the more land they own, because it is finite, the cost of land increases, which means they can sell higher mortgages.