By Dawn Anastasi, RPA Board Member

With the recent discussion from the government about implementing rent control on a federal level, there's been some articles and discussion refuting that this would be a good idea.

Here is a fantastic article about how Rent Control would not work in the long term and why:

Rent Control Recidivism

Here are some excerpts:

Rent control undermines landlords’ incentives to provide the services tenants want, because it denies landlords the ability to receive adequate compensation to make their efforts worthwhile.

There seems to be a mistaken belief in some circles that 100% of the rent collected by a property owner goes into that owner's pocket. This ignores all the expenses that go into running a property, which include property taxes, insurance, routine maintenance, lawn care, utilities, etc.

Anyone who does a non-volunteer job generally expects to be paid. Rental property owners are no exception.

But as Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck asserted, “In many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city—except for bombing.”

The article highlights the three key points why Rent Control is a mistake:

1. Rent Control denies landlords the ability to receive adequate compensation.
2. Rent Control may temporarily help current tenants, but will hurt future prospective residents.
3. Rent Control will make less rental housing available which will worsen, rather than addresses, the problem of insufficient housing supply.