Editorial Board
Rent Controls Are Not the Answer
From Berlin to New York to San Francisco, capping rents is the worst solution to unaffordable housing.
It’s a little more complicated.
Photographer: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images
California and Oregon recently imposed them. New York, Paris and Stockholm are adding more. And just about every other booming metropolis in the West is thinking about introducing them: rent controls.
The most extreme case may be Berlin. Its leftist government plans to cap most rents for five years and let tenants who spend more than 30% of their income on housing get reductions. Simultaneously, a petition is underway for a referendum to expropriate rental units from big corporate landlords.