Opinion: To err is human, but to really foul up a rental market requires rent control
It seems straightforward. When prices get too high, price caps can keep them from going higher. Indeed, this is what residents in many places hard-hit by inflation are arguing should be done in the rental housing market. The fact is this: not only would price caps result in damaging unintended consequences, but they’re not even the best method for achieving reasonable rental prices. Instead, proponents of affordable rental housing should argue for measures that increase economic freedom.
Yet in many cities and counties across the country, rent control is now an active political concern. Over the last year, places like St. Paul, Minnesota and Kingston, New York have passed rent control measures, limiting the amount rents are allowed to increase each year.
For one, prices in non-controlled apartments often increase as landlords in these non-controlled apartments struggle to accommodate those unable to secure housing in rent-controlled units. Additionally, controlled pricing dampens the incentives of developers to build new rental housing , since they know they might not be able to adjust their prices in response to changes in market demand.
So what should residents in tight rental markets support instead? Counterintuitively, policies that increase economic freedom also tend to make rental housing more affordable.
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