Free landlord's hope for empty rental flat (7)
I believe the answer is:
release
'flat' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'free landlord's hope for empty rental' is the wordplay.
'free landlord's hope' becomes 'r' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'for' says to put letters next to each other.
'empty' becomes 'E' (abbreviation e.g. on guages).
'rental' becomes 'lease' (synonyms).
'r'+'e'+'lease'='RELEASE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for release that I've seen before include "Possibly film" , "Issue" , "Set free - publish" , "Authorise publication" , "Liberate" .)