Rent Regulations

Spain has just passed a Right to Housing law. The law allows rent controls in any and all housing markets that are deemed by local governments to be 'stressed.' This...

Like so many cities around the world, Amsterdam has been gambling on shelter as a means to generating wealth for all. And like many other communities, it is discovering...

ShelterforceShelterforce is a U.S. based non-profit dedicated to community development, affordable housing, and neighbourhood stabilization. recently convened a discussion about corporate investment in rental housing and tenant protections in...

The Spanish region of Catalonia will soon be taking a kick at the Universal Basic Income (UBI) can. UBI is invariably of interest to idealists, not to mention individuals...

For some years now, there has been an informal world-wide agreement that 30% of family income is a reasonable upper limit for 'truly affordable' rent. Above this, an individual...

Is the private housing rental market a fall guy for blame-game government failure to live up to its social responsibilities? There's seems to be an argument, based on number crunching...

Is it time to abandon the neoliberal religion? The coming of its messiahs were prophesied some 40 or so years ago. These saviours of society would be the financier-angels,...

Do you rent? Suppose you found an eviction notice in your mail. Reason: failure to pay your rent. But that can't be! You've paid it faithfully for . . ....

Current Miami-Dade local politics feature some efforts to at least consider changes to the legalities of landlord-tenant relationships in an era when rents are increasing far faster than wages. City...

The UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence has just published a report about rent control. The report reviews evidence published in academic journals and grey literatureFor a good discussion...

Lots of talk worldwide about affordable housing crises. Is there any action, though? Most governments are building little or no affordable housing, and of that much may be affordable in...

Collective Action? Isn't that what government does to favour tenants when it imposes rent controls upon landlords? Unfortunately, no. Rent controls can, and do, cut both ways — in favour...

There are important ideas that have a wide theoretical application to housing, but practical examples can be few and far between. Any single new step forward may be worthy...

London, Ontario currently licenses student accommodation and smaller private rental buildings. The City's Council recently debated whether to expand its licensing system to include rental apartments and townhouses. The...

Ken Gibb and Alex Marsh are investigating the academic literature about rent controls. It seems there hasn't been a comprehensive review for 20 years. The final report will be...

New Zealand has taken steps to ease a housing crisis it shares with many nations, all of whom are suffering from the financialization of housing — speculative buying and...

Recently, we posted a storyTry: Biden-Harris: Timely Dawn Of A New Day For Public Housing? Unlikely that assessed the chances that Public Housing would see a revival in America...

In an era of declining work security (never mind the pandemic!) it's not surprising that those worried about their late life income might consider "mom and pop shop" investment...

Free market democracies offer little natural protection to their citizens when it comes to the "inalienable right" of gamblers to speculate for profit in life's essentials, such as food...

Changes to renting regulations are becoming a hot topic in nations where the rental housing is growing scarce. Landlords without curbs on their free market 'right to profit' are...

Some governments are introducing rent controls as a response to the housing crisis. This is a hotly contested measure. Landlords and developers say rent controls discourage adding stock to...

North America is a land of large housing lots. Not surprising therefore that their potential for doubling density causes affordable housing activists to pump their fists in the air...

It's a world in which a great many nations pay lip service to the human right to adequate shelter. There are some, including the United States, that don't acknowledge...

Characteristic of proposed regional rent control laws are fevered arguments from opposite sides of a debate on their value. Activists, apparently with their hearts and minds closer to the...

The Mask? A U.S. legal entity called a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) is becoming a favourite tool of slum landlords. LLC laws prevents the owners from being sued over...

A short time ago we explored with tongue in cheek a phenomena that supposedly originated in Thailand called 'seasteading'. It's hard to tell whether 'seasteading' — the idea of...

This article does not reflect upon many interesting facets of London's newly proposed rent controls for the UK's largest city. Instead, we'd like to comment on the meat of a...

Following the landslide re-election for India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, how is his hugely ambitious "Housing For All By 2022" plan coming along? Not a slam dunk yet, but it...

There would seem to be a growing consensus worldwide that housing renters need at least some kind of protection from free-market land and housing speculation. But how? Within capitalist societies...

Two years ago, after a two year process, the City of Boulder approved by a vote of 7-2 an ordinance to allow housing co-operatives as dwelling units. Opponents felt...

The affordable housing crisis is creating a new class of perpetual middle-income home ownership hopefuls. They'd love to own a home, but year after year, the possibility of doing...

In California, the Democratic Party owns veto-resistant super-majorities in both houses of congress, together with the governorship. American governments just don't get any more powerful than this! And yet, faced...

For many years, Republican majorities in the New York State Legislature have blocked efforts to provide better protections for the state's housing renters, particularly those  suffering from predatory landlord...

It's election promise season in America. (With U.S. political campaigning practically all year, every year, when is it not these days?) Leading up to the 2016 U.S. elections, there were...

Needless to say, we applaud the state of Oregon, which has passed a state rent control bill, the first of its kind in America, at least in the recent...

Apartment List has just published a report documenting an explosion of higher income renters in the United States. Rental households earning more than $100,000 (US) increased by 48% from...

Proposition 10 was a much watched California referendum in the 2018 U.S. elections. Its purpose: to reintroduce of rent controls in a state where the affordable housing crisis is...

In supernatural lore, vampires would seem to be a necessary evil. Drive a stake through their hearts to get rid of them individually. Brandish garlic to keep them at...

The second to last time the Province of Ontario tinkered with rent control, it galloped madly off in all directions. All right, it galloped madly off in two directions,...

Municipal governments in Canada's larger cities are starting to pay attention to rental housing. A low vacancy rate is the incentive for a market rental policy in Richmond, British Columbia....

A useful, if flawed, article in Forbes  (introduced below) enumerates the disadvantages of rent controls for investors. Written for real estate investors, it is against rent controls. (Full disclosure: the...

In a three part series, Unsheltered, the New York Times exposes the rapid and horrifying destruction of its rent controlled apartment stock. Gentrification in a red hot housing market has simply...

In America, an affordable housing juggernaut is looming, sweeping in from the west. Read about the depth of the situation and the inadequate response in ctpost: San Francisco's housing crisis is...

'Incentivized' businesses are the pet unicorns of small-government conservatives.  Fewer rules, less government and less taxes, are all incentives for free enterprise serve the public. This part of the...