This process reduces continuity in ownership and increased instability for both owners and renters. Tenant mobility is reduced in rent controlled jurisdictions. Tenants in rent controlled units tend to stay in them even as their personal incomes grow over the years. By reducing the housing supply, rent controls increase the demand for publicly subsidized housing units. Most rent-controlled cities have long waiting lists for public housing units.
Rent controls impose high administrative costs on local jurisdictions.
While increasing demand for public housing units, rents controls actually reduce property tax collections due to depressed assessed evaluations reflecting the constrained income-generating potential of rental units. When Boston and Cambridge repealed rent controls, their property tax revenues increased, in real-dollar terms, for the first time in many years. All forms of rent control are politically difficult to eliminate once adopted. All rights reserved.