The most effective way to lower housing prices is to increase supply. Instead of artificially freezing rents, which discourages investment, policymakers should remove regulations that make building new units difficult. More construction creates more competition, which naturally drives down prices for everyone.

Price caps can devastate small-time landlords, like retirees dependent on rental income, by setting rent below their costs for taxes and maintenance. This turns the property into a money-losing asset that is impossible to sell, effectively destroying the owner's life savings and retirement plan.

After President Javier Milei deregulated rental policies, landlords who had kept properties vacant flooded the market. This massive supply increase caused inflation-adjusted rents to fall by up to 40%, demonstrating that removing price controls, not imposing them, can solve housing shortages.

Policies that ban landlords from performing credit checks or vetting income will have the opposite of their intended effect. To mitigate risk from potentially non-paying tenants, landlords will be forced to demand much higher upfront rents and multi-month prepayments, making housing even less affordable for responsible tenants.

New rent control laws don't just limit rent; they fundamentally cap the equity upside for real estate investors. By limiting potential cash flow growth from an asset, these policies make building or upgrading apartment buildings less attractive. This discourages the very capital investment needed to solve the housing supply crisis.

For cities needing revenue, a tax on luxury second homes (pied-à-terres) is a strategically sound option. It targets the wealthiest demographic, who are least likely to relocate due to the tax, and offers the secondary benefit of potentially increasing the available housing stock.

Rent control policies are fundamentally flawed because they disrupt the economic incentives required to maintain and build housing. Landlords, maintenance workers, and manufacturers won't provide their services at a loss, which inevitably leads to a decrease in housing supply and quality.

Homeowners and local governments block new development, creating artificial scarcity that drives up prices, similar to how luxury brands like LVMH restrict supply to increase value. This "LVMH-ing" of housing makes it unaffordable for younger generations and limits economic mobility.

The history of rent control in New York City shows how price caps disincentivize maintenance and new construction. This leads to a death spiral of deteriorating housing stock, supply shortages, abandonment, and ultimately higher market rents for any new, uncontrolled units.