Patrick Boyle

And it's about all of these distortions that it causes.

Because in a way, with rent control, you're often picking a favorite class, like a group of renters who will get it.

But

It also disincentivized landlords to, we'll say, repair and improve their buildings.

You end up with funny things.

Like I had a friend who had a rent control apartment in New York that, you know, this is my parents' age.

She rented it in the 1970s and, you know, left New York, like was living in another state, but like kept that as her main address because it was interesting.

you know, she's paying 1970s rent in 2025, right?

Like, I mean, it costs nothing.

And so, you know, and the landlord would go to all sorts of extremes to try and knock her out.

But she had a good lawyer.

She's not getting knocked out.

But that apartment, she would live in it like, you know, a week, a year kind of thing, if even, you know.

And I used to joke with her.

I said, I know you've got low rent, but actually your rent is still more than a hotel room in New York.

But, you know, you cause these distortions where things get locked in, you know,

It's just the problem with real estate is often a supply and demand problem.

Why do you have to pay really high rent for apartments in London?

Well, there's a lot of people, and there's not so many apartments.

So you need to build more.