One of the most robust findings in economic research is that rent control doesn't work. A policy often sold as a humane way to make housing more accessible and affordable instead constrains housing supply and makes market housing harder to access and more expensive.
Just about everywhere rent control, sometimes referred to as rent stabilization, has been tried, the same story plays out: Rent controls artificially freeze the price of housing, making many new developments, especially those aimed at more middle-income renters, financially untenable. Developers, in turn, shift their focus to building expensive, higher-margin luxury housing. The result is that there's not enough housing to meet market demand, and the housing that does get built is priced out of reach for the middle-class. As long as demand increases, rents go up, even for modest dwellings, so new entrants who aren't rich are increasingly priced out.
