Rent control represents a classic economic paradox: a policy framed around affordability that structurally constricts the very supply it seeks to democratize.

Comment “Rent” and we’ll send you the video! Rigid price ceilings destroy the marginal return on building maintenance, forcing property owners to withhold thousands of viable units as “ghost apartments.” Capped yields disincentivize development, steering capital toward alternative asset classes and driving up non-regulated free-market rents under artificial supply constraints. Constrained by fixed pricing, landlords mitigate default risk by favoring high-solvency applicants—effectively turning price controls into unintended subsidies for high-earning households. Housing scarcity is rarely a market failure; it is predominantly an institutional bottleneck.