Despite there being much disagreement on the topic of rent control, this paper put together by Phillip Mendonca- Vieira is a comprehensive sweep that starts with the empirical evidence at our disposal and aims to have a serious discussion about the benefits, drawbacks and impacts of rent control. Tenants and their advocates have long claimed that rent controls are crucial for tenants’ ability to keep their housing stable and affordable. Being a tenant’s rights agency, the FMTA hears from tenants in crisis everyday who tell us about the adverse impacts of sudden and dramatic rent increases on their lives.
Rent control is almost universally derided as bad policy by almost every economist...at least this is the case 'theoretically'.
Emprically (ie. what actually happens in reality), rent control often has quite a different history. For example, in 2017 Ontario expanded rent control to hundreds of thousands of units amid pundit reports that rental housing development would suffer as a result. Instead, one year later development of rental units surged with more units now proposed than in the last 40 years.
Is this common, though? Our latest release, tries to answer this question.
Read "Actually, Rent Control Is Great".