Comment by Spartan-S63

Comment by Spartan-S63 2 days ago

I find that rent control is a good idea in theory, but leads to a lot of deadweight loss. As a former renter, what I really wanted was a predictable cap on rent increases. For folks who are long-term renters, without controls and predictability, their only option would be to move every few years, which is incredibly disruptive.

From my understanding, European countries tend to have restrictions on what lease renewals can look like and with declining home ownership (and ownership being priced out for many), I think we should look at European models for real solutions to our housing crisis.

Hammershaft 2 days ago

Rent control is not good in theory, it's the most universally hated policy among economists because it has so many horrible unintended effects on housing development and maintenance.

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archagon 2 days ago

That’s because it’s not an economic policy but a humanistic one. Stable housing should be a right. If rent control was the default, then obviously no renter would vote for arbitrary rent increases in exchange for maybe, someday in the future, rent going down due to increased housing supply.

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- Hammershaft a day ago
  
  Good intentions count for nothing. Good intentions that create bad policy that harms people counts for much less than nothing.
  
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  archagon a day ago
  
  You can feel however you want about it, but people will vote for rent control if they start getting squeezed out of their housing. Hate it as an economic policy? Then make sure enough housing gets built before people get squeezed.
  
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  kjkjadksj 20 hours ago
  
  It doesn’t really harm people. Housing crisis cities with rent controls are built out to the limits of their zoning. This suggests zoning is the limiting factor and not rent control.
  
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- bpt3 2 days ago
  
  It's not humanistic, it's pandering to current renters at the expense of everyone else.
  You can put your right to stable housing next to your right to internet, healthcare, and every other meaningless positive right.
  
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  archagon 2 days ago
  
  Call it meaningless if you want, but this is a policy that renters getting priced out of their housing markets will eagerly vote for. And prioritizing existing residents over newcomers feels just to me. Focus on making it easier to build new housing instead of getting pissy about the safety net.
  
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cal_dent 2 days ago

rent control (which realistically for all but the most idealist is some sort of capped rent increase policy) can only work if its done and owned by the state/nation. It can't work for private sector as the ROI will be relatively poorer on doing that vs many other investments so it'll actively disincentivise investment into more rental housing long term & in short/medium term disincentivise all but necessary capital/maintenance investment as it'll quickly erode whatever small return they're making on their rental investment.

State/National government are far more likely to stomach lower ROI than the private sector because they can arguably have a more holistic view of what their investment is. However, to be able tod that you also need robust finances in government which has certainly not been the case in most developed western economies since the 80s

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standardUser 2 days ago

This is an important distinction. Most "rent control" laws are intended to be "rent stabilization" not outright price fixing. Their goal is to prevent insane swings in rent happening too quickly, which disrupts families and local economies (and even infrastructure development).

But the worst/most aggressively laws are always used as the examples, skewing the conversation to edge cases and ignoring the fact that these laws can and do take hundreds of different forms.

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torginus 2 days ago

Price fixing isn't so bad either - if apt prices stay predictable, you can plane ahead financially without being forced to buy an apartment or house.

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kjkjadksj 20 hours ago

Predictable cap on rent increases is rent control as it is termed in the US. It is really rent stabilization not rent control.

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