[opportune]

When paired with artificially constrained supply I would agree due to the negative pressure on housing liquidity.

However as long as rent increases are capped at the maintenance cost increases I don’t see the negative effect, because the landlord still captures the cash flow at the time the lease begins. Yes it has a negative effect on equity compared to if the landlord could raise rents as much as they want, but I don’t see that as an objective good nor does it affect many people besides the landlord.

Rent control does create perverse incentives regarding subletting, evictions due to factors other than the nonpayment of rent, and fulfilling tenant maintenance requests though. But in terms of market participants besides the tenant and landlord I really think only the lack of liquidity is a problem.

[telchior]

Serious question that I don't know the answer to: when and where, in the US, has rent control not been accompanied by constrained supply?

I'm not using your phrasing, "artificially constrained supply", because it seems like artificial could have a very squishy definition. A lot of economists these days are saying that rent control leads to lower supply, but they seem to mean it as more of a natural consequence (i.e. without necessarily needing the kind of NIMBYism and red tape that gets blamed for low supply in the largest cities with rent control).

[dagw]

However as long as rent increases are capped at the maintenance cost increases I don’t see the negative effect

If the rent increase (and thus profit) is capped, but the market price isn't then it soon becomes rational to sell your rental apartments, stop being a landlord and invest in something with better returns. You see this a lot in Sweden. More and more rental apartments are being turned into owned apartments, sold off and removed from the rental markets since it's simply the most profitable thing to do.

nor does it affect many people besides the landlord.

It affects people who need an apartment and who want/have to rent instead of buying. Make being a landlord too hard and risky and you get fewer landlords and fewer apartments to rent on the market. When I got a job in Norway (no rent control) it took me two phone calls and less than a week to find a rental apartment in the part of town I wanted to live. When I got a job in Sweden (strict rent control) it took me months to find a place and it was a short term contract for a place way out in a shitty suburb far from where I wanted to live.