[ido]

Rent control works great when it cover the entire rental stock.

See e.g. Berlin vs LA: https://goo.gl/aNHzGQ

In Berlin all rents are controlled by default[1]. And despite similar purchase prices, rental prices are half of LA's.

[1] only newly built units or those renovated for more than 1/3 the value of the unit are allowed to be rented without price restrictions. This keeps the vast majority under rent control.

[Zahlmeister]

Affordable housing is actually quite scarce inside the city right now, people on average don't really earn that much. The rent controls had no actual effect on price increases. It has been suggested that the rules are simply being ignored and most tenants won't pick a legal fight with their landlords when housing is so scarce:

https://www.welt.de/finanzen/immobilien/article150877146/Die...

There's more than enough housing for higher-income people, so rent control there is moot.

[ido]

Rent control in berlin goes beyond the mietpreisbrmese - most significant is that you can't increase the rent once you get a tenant beyond the rate of inflation and that you (almost) can't kick out a tenant.

I have friends in London whose rent (in the same apartment) went up 10% every year for years until they had to leave the apartment. This is not happening in Berlin.

[Zahlmeister]

You can increase the rent up to 15% (Berlin) within three years, well above the rate of inflation. This forces some people to move out, as well.

Rents in Berlin are a joke compared to London. You can actually get cheap and plentyful housing just outside the city, but then you'll need a car as well.

[ido]

I didn't know that, every place I lived in here had much slower rent increases (despite the market around the apartment raising more than that - in fact in my current place I'm still paying then same rent 3 years into living here).

Either way 15% in 3 years is still rent control.

[Zahlmeister]

Like I said, there's a demand for affordable housing and in Berlin that means very affordable. Lots of students, lots of artistans, and also lots of unemployed people.

> Either way 15% in 3 years is still rent control.

...which affects very few people.

There are some places that suddenly became "hip", where rent increases drove out lots of low-income people, which caused political backlash. These people really just had to move to less popular places.

[ido]

Well I don't know what your point of comparison is, but my wife and I have been looking at buying or renting a bigger place (new baby) and all the stats I see when looking at places indicate purchase pricing going up at about double the rate of rental prices (often 5-7% YoY rent increase vs 10-15% YoY purchase price increases).

This has been the case for the last couple years at least. What do you attribute the discrepancy in rent increases vs purchase price increases if not for rent controls?

Do you know nobody living cheaply with an old contract that they would never get today, and that their landlord can't increase to market rate? Cause I know loads such people and this would not happen in a place without rent controls.

[et-al]

There's too many variables to say that rent control for the entire housing stock is what keeps Berlin's rents down.

For starters, Berlin is known to be one of the cheaper German cities until recently ("poor but sexy"). In addition, the climate, geographies, and economies between LA and Berlin are significantly different.

[ido]

Compare berlin to any big American city and you would see that the rent-to-purchase-prices ratio is always much lower in berlin.

[user5994461]

>>> Rental prices are half of LA's.

Because income is one half of LA.

[ido]

And yet purchase prices are the same. Rents are controlled and purchase prices are not.