When Javier Milei was elected President of Argentina, one of his first orders was to scrap the country’s onerous rent controls. According to The Wall Street Journal, here’s what happened next.
Landlords are rushing to put their properties back on the market, with Buenos Aires rental supplies increasing by over 170%. While rents are still up in nominal terms, many renters are getting better deals than ever, with a 40% decline in the real price of rental properties when adjusted for inflation since last October, said Federico González Rouco, an economist at Buenos Aires-based Empiria Consultores.
Before that, they preferred to keep them empty.
In Buenos Aires—a city dubbed the Paris of the South for its broad avenues and cafe culture—many apartments long sat empty, with landlords preferring to keep them vacant, or lease them as vacation rentals, rather than comply with the government’s rent law.
In 2022, there were some 200,000 empty properties in Buenos Aires, up 45% from 2018, according to a report by Cedesu, a Buenos Aires-based policy group that focuses on urban development. Finding an affordable apartment under the rent-control law was difficult.
Harris’s economic plan will fail. It is the exact wrong thing to do.
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Non property owners should NEVER be allowed to vote on issues that effect the taxes of property owners. Of course, the leeches will vote in “benefits” for themselves. It costs them nothing.
Kamalamala Dingdon is a moron who has no concept about economics in a free society. Once she institutes price controls, rent controls and her so-called equity plans, we’ll be thrown into a depression from which we may never recover. Don’t be stupid. VOTE FOR TRUMP!
Half of the people ruin life for all of the people.
The policies of the left always result in emptiness and suffering.
Mice get caught in traps because they don’t care why the cheese is free.
Socialism works the same way.
Unfortunately, parasites are allowed to vote, and they keep voting for communism because they never have to pay for it and never have to face the consequences.
so if landlords are getting less rent, then they were stupid not to rent, correct ?
rent controls should only apply to those with enough units to move the market….like black rock…but like any tax on the uber rich…they really only apply it to middle class
When you rent, you still have expenses in your property. When you have competition in the capitalist system, you don’t need rent control. That’s in control by the offer/demand of the people. Landlords are happy and renters are happy.
It’s about liberty. It’s about heart. It’s about progress. It’s about allowing the human spirit to thrive. These things are the way to enrich everyone, to lessen poverty and hunger. Let the market work…nothing is ever perfect. That’s life.
Rent control leads to monetary loss for landlords. Would you rent out units at a loss? No, it would be stupid to do that. Let the free market operate and things will balance out. To hell with Marxist rent controls!!!
The assertion, “[L]andlords preferring to keep them vacant … rather than comply with the government’s rent law” serms fiscally illogical. Isn’t small income better than no income?!
Not if renters abuse the property or once in are grandfathered in forever at that price. Depending on the renter it could easily go into the negative
BINGO! That “grandfathered” rule is what killed rentals. My uncle rented out a huge house with double garden lot to a lady in the mid 1960’s for US$ 200/month which was reasonable at the time. Uruguay imposed rent controls and the family in that house NEVER had to pay more than the original amount. It took until late 1980’s to… Read more »
San Francisco has it, too. I know a chap who has a rent controlled apt in San Francisco who refuses to let it go even though he now lives in a million dollar mansion. I have a friend who INHERITED a rent controlled apt in New York that he uses as a hotel room when he goes to New York.… Read more »
Clearly you have never owned a rental property and had to deal with the reality of the real world.
Exactly. That post is so naive, I think it must be a student.
NO!!! Rental property is not like stock you can buy and leave it. Property has a continuing mortgage, taxes, insurance, and maintenance of everything from exteriors to interiors, appliances, HVAC systems, insurance, taxes, etc. Under rent controls, rental units were no longer profitable, so they probably were taken off the rental market, refreshed, and put up for sale. But in… Read more »