The city's own research shows rent regulation has held down rents in Manhattan more than anywhere else. But how the effects of ending rent regulation, or phasing it out through so-called vacancy decontrol, would play out through the rest of the city is more difficult to gauge. This difficulty is perhaps best illustrated by the very different results predicted by two recent studies. Both were sponsored by the Rent Stabilization Association, the city's largest landlord association. The second study assumes that deregulation would compel landlords to spend significantly to upgrade apartments, and it reaches a dramatically different conclusion about the impact on rents.
Tenant groups argue that both studies probably understate the impact of deregulation.
And they further contend that what matters is not only the size of the increases but also the income of the tenants affected. But that doesn't mean there's no difference outside of Manhattan. And for the people who are living in those neighborhoods, it's a very significant difference. Boston, another long holdout, lifted its controls in 1994. As with practically every other aspect of rent regulation, the effects of this experiment are hotly contested.