Rent Controls Rent control is the practice of imposing a legal maximum (rent ceiling) upon the rent in a particular housing market, below the equilibrium rent is called rent control. Rent control is the government imposition of price ceilings on rent for apartments in certain areas of a city. The goal is usually to protect the rights of the poor. Thus, in a rent controlled or rent stabilized building, the amount of rent will not increase as quickly as inflation. Rent control is the only way to protect lower-income tenants from landlords who overprice, and from being forced to move out of a neighbourhood because they cannot afford the rent. Limiting the price that a landlord can demand helps maintain a city's ethnic diversity and prevents the creation of slums on the outskirts of the main city. Also by linking rent prices to apartment maintenance and material improvements, rent control actually improves the state of housing. Several U.S. cities use price controls to limit the rent a landlord can charge for residential properties. Generally, rent control exists in expensive markets. San Francisco, for example, employs some of California's toughest rent control laws. As of 2010, the average price for a two-bedroom unit in the city is $1,760, compared to the state-wide average of $1,327. A 1986 U.N. study estimated that about 42 percent of the world’s urban residents were renters. It was not known how many of those 150 million households lived under rent control governments, but preliminary research suggested that the proportion is as high as 30 percent. These numbers can reasonably be expected to have increased with the passage of time. Thus, the motivation of a project on rent control is clear and needs little expansion.
The advantages of rent controls for tenants are obvious: lower rents and more controlled increases of rents. This is especially beneficial in the center city, where rent controls can allow low-income workers or artists to live in areas that are well-served by public transportation, which can also reduce household expenses. Rent controls can make it possible for workers such as teachers and firefighters to live within a reasonable distance of their schools and fire halls when the housing prices would otherwise be out of reach.
Arguments
One benefit of rent control is that it allows people earning low incomes the opportunity to live in housing that they would not be