10 Facts About Rent control

Rent control regulation is a system of laws, administered by a court or a public authority, which aims to ensure the affordability of housing and tenancies on the rental market for dwellings.

Rent control regulation is one of several classes of policies proposed to improve housing affordability, alongside subsidies and policies aimed at expanding the housing supply.

Thomas Sowell writes that rent control reduces the supply of housing, and has stated that rent control increases urban blight.

Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck, a housing expert, said that "rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city – except for bombing".

Rent control was used in Rome as early as 1470 to protect Jewish residents from price gouging.

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In 2018, a statewide initiative attempted to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which, if passed, would have allowed cities and municipalities to enact "vacancy control" systems, allowed rent control to be applied to buildings newer than 1995, and would have allowed rent control on single-family homes.

Rent control regulations are determined in France based on the Rent control Reference Index, which serves as the basis for what landlords can increase yearly rents by.

Rent control regulation covered the whole of the UK private sector rental market from 1915 to 1980.

Rent control regulations survive among a small number of council houses, and often the rates set by local authorities mirror escalating prices in the non-regulated private market.

Rent control regulation in the United States is an issue for each state.