One approach I've heard of that specifically addresses short-term rentals is to limit the number or density of such units within a city or a particular district.
Rent control has the efect of locking people in and reducing mobility, favoring those already in the market at the expense of those looking to get in to the market.
how does rent control lock people in? only if moving is not possible without raising rent. effective rent control is about preventing excessive rent, not about preventing the raise of rent to existing tenants.
as far as i can tell, the effect of rent control in germany is mostly that similar properties cost a similar rent which does not prevent people from moving, because they are not risking an increase just because of the move.
how would additional supply fix that? there is no space in the city to build more. additional supply would happen at the edges, where most people do not want to move until the area is sufficiently developed, and there are local jobs too.
a more desirable area will always be more expensive. rent control allows to keep that in check, no control will mean that even if there is enough supply elsewhere, those more desirable areas will remain expensive. rent control is needed to prevent gentrification too.
That's what all NIMBYs parrot. Berlin population only grew by ~250k people ... since 1990, and back then Berlin was basically depopulated. It's also one of the least dense capitals in Europe today, Berlin is not Amsterdam to not have any space.
Saying "there's no more space" doesn't pass the smell test. There's more than enough space but there's too much real estate speculation going on to jack up the prices because certain interest groups need to make money from it.
>most people do not want to move until the area is sufficiently developed, and there are local jobs too
Once that area is sufficiently developed it's too late to move because you'll already be priced out. If you want to live somewhere you need to move thee before it becomes "cool" and "hip".
that is about an additional more restrictive form of rent control on top of the already existing nationwide rent-control laws:
"The court ruled on Thursday that the Berlin government had overstepped its powers in introducing the law, as federal law governing rents was already in place."
this does not support an argument against rent control in general, but only against outright freezing rents in place which is what this law tried to do.
the stories about landlords getting around the rent limit by charging extra for furniture are also not helping the argument because the law covered that too, so they were effectively breaking the law. the only argument that is valid is the fact that less units were available for rent, showing that this particular law didn't work. but again, this does not prove that rent-control on general is bad.
german rent-control generally means that rent may not be charged higher than about 20% of the average rent in an area. this means that rents are still somewhat flexible and they can rise, but not excessively so.
Rent control in Germany also fixed the housing shortage and creates great incentives for new construction. In 2022, Germany had a record in new apartment and buildings finished - 2023 will probably even better. The new ECB interest regime of 4+% actually had very limited effect on the market in this respect thanks to rent control.
Like honestly, rent control is just beyond dumb. There are like 1000 ways that actually solve the problem - but unfortunately they require cities and bureaucrats to work instead of just passing a law. Supply and demand. If it takes LONGER to get a building permit that to actually build a housing complex… When cities are not planning ahead creating new space (argh, infrastructure, public transportation, this sounds like work…
i am a bit confused. rent control in germany works, but then you are arguing against it?
actually i disagree that simply allowing to build enough property will work. businesses tend to charge as much as they can, and if we want actual competition in rent prices, then the supply would have to vastly exceed the demand and not just meet it. with all the best intentions, that is not going to happen, and i don't think it is desirable either.
> and if we want actual competition in rent prices, then the supply would have to vastly exceed the demand and not just meet it.
So, having less than 1% of the housing stock go to AirBnB supposedly makes cities unaffordable but increasing the supply of housing will not have the opposite effect until supply greatly exceeds demand? Why?