However as long as rent increases are capped at the maintenance cost increases I don’t see the negative effect
If the rent increase (and thus profit) is capped, but the market price isn't then it soon becomes rational to sell your rental apartments, stop being a landlord and invest in something with better returns. You see this a lot in Sweden. More and more rental apartments are being turned into owned apartments, sold off and removed from the rental markets since it's simply the most profitable thing to do.
nor does it affect many people besides the landlord.
It affects people who need an apartment and who want/have to rent instead of buying. Make being a landlord too hard and risky and you get fewer landlords and fewer apartments to rent on the market. When I got a job in Norway (no rent control) it took me two phone calls and less than a week to find a rental apartment in the part of town I wanted to live. When I got a job in Sweden (strict rent control) it took me months to find a place and it was a short term contract for a place way out in a shitty suburb far from where I wanted to live.
If the rent increase (and thus profit) is capped, but the market price isn't then it soon becomes rational to sell your rental apartments, stop being a landlord and invest in something with better returns. You see this a lot in Sweden. More and more rental apartments are being turned into owned apartments, sold off and removed from the rental markets since it's simply the most profitable thing to do.
nor does it affect many people besides the landlord.
It affects people who need an apartment and who want/have to rent instead of buying. Make being a landlord too hard and risky and you get fewer landlords and fewer apartments to rent on the market. When I got a job in Norway (no rent control) it took me two phone calls and less than a week to find a rental apartment in the part of town I wanted to live. When I got a job in Sweden (strict rent control) it took me months to find a place and it was a short term contract for a place way out in a shitty suburb far from where I wanted to live.