Another lesson in: People Don’t Learn.
On “Rent Freezes”, a couple of special things about New York City:
One. There’s no income or wealth criterion for getting and holding a “Rent Stabilise” apartment. For that reason, landlords prefer to rent to the richest tenants they can, to ensure they keep getting rent paid.
Two. Many “Rent Stabilised” apartments — some 25,000 according to AI — are left empty by landlords because they can’t afford the repairs to bring them up to code. Eg, they may need to borrow 100 or 200 thousand for repairs, but only allowed to charge $1,000 per month. That doesn’t even cover the monthly mortgage repayments.
Three. NYC has been trying Rent Control for decades. Whenever it’s failed, which is every time, instead of dumping the failed policy, they decide on even more intervention. Makes no sense, but is part of the “People Never Learn” lesson.
