We have rent control in Paris, France. Appartments are still expensive, but I pay 1600 euros per month for 60sqm in the center of one of the liveliest cities in the world.

Rent control WORKS.

Jesus, I'm getting it from both ends here, somebody else is dumping on me for suggesting that a rent-control system that's a few points above inflation so that landlords could adapt to the market without abruptly bankrupting their tenants was somehow a reasonable compromise.

I'm not arguing for extreme rent-control policies, just that no rent control is bad because it lets landlords write their own eviction laws.

Peg it at like 2.5% or 5% per year above inflation and you can't use it as a sudden backdoor eviction but you also let landlords adapt to market reality over time.

Capping rents might be stupid for all the reasons economists say, but putting a damper on sudden price shifts is just being humane.

I think your second point is valid, but the first is upside-down. Landlords compete with tenants for plots and bank loans. If they started leaving the market, more plots will free up and banks will be forced to start giving out loans to tenants. This will allow people who are currently tenants to build their own houses, rather than needing to rent. And your third point only applies if you exclude some properties from rent control, which is what Ontario seems to be doing.

Before I took economics in college I would have downvoted you. Price ceilings don't solve the problem.

So the first point is simply false, the second point is symptomatic of the third point which is simply an example of a poor policy.

Also the second half of the third point is completely fucked off. If new construction were exempt from rent control then your ROI would be better on building units than buying units.

Nice ChatGPT copypasta, bro