Washington Post calls rent control a ‘textbook policy failure’

The Washington Post editorial board took a hard-line stance against rent control policies, arguing that “capping prices is a textbook policy failure” that ultimately leaves renters “worse off” than they would have been otherwise.

In a Tuesday editorial, the Post cited failures of rent control in cities such as St. Paul and New York City as evidence that the Los Angeles City Council’s 12-2 vote to lower its existing cap on annual rent increases will do more harm than good.

“Whenever people get anxious about affordability, populists offer up a deceptively simple solution: rent control. Yet capping prices is a textbook policy failure that leaves renters in every community which tries it worse off than they would have been otherwise: less housing supply, more deferred maintenance and reduced mobility. Fresh examples aren’t needed, yet cities and states keep repeating the experiment,” the editorial board wrote.

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Contrasting the differences in outcomes between rent-controlled and non-rent-controlled cities, the Post highlighted “the tale of the Twin Cities in Minnesota” — comparing St. Paul to neighboring Minneapolis to show how their sharply different housing policies tell a compelling story.

“In 2022, St. Paul ushered in one of the strictest controls in the country, capping rent increases at 3 percent for most apartments. Its neighbor Minneapolis, just across the Mississippi River, rejected price controls and concentrated instead on creating housing supply to meet demand,” the paper detailed. 

“In St. Paul, housebuilding permits plummeted by 79 percent in the first year. In Minneapolis, they increased nearly four times. Rents went up in St. Paul more than twice as much as Minneapolis, in part because some landlords maxed out the cap to make up for future losses, according to a story this week in the Wall Street Journal,” the Post editorial read.

According to the Post, while St. Paul is “trying to clean up the mess it made” through its housing policies, critics of rent control won the mayoral races in both cities last month.

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The city government of St. Paul did not immediately return Digital’s request for comment.

The editorial cited Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck, who once quipped that rent control is “the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing.”

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“It becomes irrational for landlords to invest in upkeep. Others pull properties off the market to sell. Landlords who keep renting will be more likely to hike rents when the lease is first signed to account for their limited ability to raise prices in the future. This will make initial rent costs higher than necessary. Meanwhile, renters will be less likely to upsize or downsize as needed, not wanting to sign onto a higher-cost lease upfront,” the Post explained.

“Despite all that, the Los Angeles City Council voted 12-2 last month to lower its existing cap on annual rent increases.”

The Post concluded there is no “feigning ignorance” about the “consequences that inevitably follow these caps,” pointing to New York City’s estimated 50,000 vacant apartments — “thanks to rent control policies” — as evidence.

The city government of New York and the Los Angeles City Council did not immediately respond to Digital’s request for comment.

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“In Scotland, the Scottish National Party capped rent hikes at 3 percent in 2022 — only to report the highest rent increases on record this fall. Meanwhile, in Argentina, President Javier Milei abolished rent controls in December 2023. Properties flooded the market, and rents have fallen by 40 percent on average. That’s something American cities would be wise to replicate,” the editorial board wrote.