Rent Freezes and the Great Landlord Panic of 2025

So I’ve just finished yelling at the sky after listening to Mike Moffatt, PhD Missing Middle podcast episode on rent control. It managed to frame the debate as renters staying vs. renters looking, while completely ignoring the real issue: the legalized chaos that happens every time a renter moves out.

Let’s talk about it. When a unit becomes vacant, rent control disappears like a magician’s assistant. Poof! No caps, no limits, no questions asked. The market calls this “supply and demand.” I call it the Broken Housing Market Hunger Games.

Landlords say they just want “market rent.” Sure. But why do rents rise faster than inflation and wages?

Because they can.
Because governments let them.
Because the property-owning class forged a long, sturdy consensus against anything resembling non-market housing for generations.

If we’re serious about fixing this, a rent freeze (à la Mayor-elect Mamdani) is only step one. What we need is rent stabilization, where rent hikes are capped at the rate of inflation on all housing, regardless of age or turnover.

If your unit isn’t up to housing or building code anymore, that’s not a tenant’s problem, spend your profits. Renovations? Sure. But only from a pre-approved list of legitimate upgrades that justify a modest increase tied to the Consumer Price Index. And no, Italian marble countertops don’t count.

This kind of policy is totally normal in Europe: Germany’s “Mietspiegel” and Denmark’s “Lejeloven” already cap rents and limit what landlords can charge for vacant units. If we don’t change the rental system, we’re just stuck where landlords don’t adhere to the law when large sums are at stake and governments pretend not to notice.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s time our housing policy stopped yelling at renters needs and started yelling at greed.