Rent Control

Rent Control Synopsis

First Published in 1987, Rent Control discusses the economics of rent control, citing numerous international examples of the detrimental effects of rigid rent control. Various policy options to revamp rental housing markets are examined critically. Rent control has proved a key issue in both politics and economics, repeatedly dividing interventionists and free marketeers. Consequently, its history - throughout the world- is extremely involved and tangled. Successive governments have sought to reverse the legislation of their predecessors without appearing, on the one hand, to remove the right to manage their own properties from landlords, or on the other to condone the behavior of unscrupulous and exploitative landlords.

The authors argue that partial repeals of rent control have been ineffective at best, and counterproductive at worst. Only complete abolition of rent and eviction controls imposed by the state can bring about revitalised housing markets, and the book ends with a discussion of how this can be done without causing too much hardship. This is an interesting read for scholars and researchers of political economy and British economy