Apartment for Rent

                                  Should I Stay or Should I Go Now

Rent stabilization tenants tend to retain their apartments for decades and in some cases they are passed down from one generation to the next. Due to this extended habitation; existing properties become outdated and in many cases environmentally unfriendly, inefficient and unsafe. Tenants resist investing in apartments they do not have legal ownership. Land owners do not see financial benefits in modernizing a rental unit with limited earning potential. There is belief that if the stabilized and controlled rentals were to be continually updated, tenants would have no incentive to relocate or relinquish occupancy to these units and allow for land owners to maximize revenues by commanding market value rents. A few units in one apartment building can inhibit the entire structure from possibly receiving the much needed maintenance to electricity, plumbing etc.
 If I Stay There Will Be Trouble

This creates a dual dilemma, one affecting the quality of adjacent apartments that cannot undergo full renovations when vacated; thus generating suppressed market rents for them as well. Secondly; creating unsafe living conditions for all occupants in and connecting buildings.  This conundrum adversely affects new construction in the city. Potential developers hesitate investing in new projects because the cost of materials and labor are greater than the rental income revenues that would be generated. Many owners argue that rent regulations are nothing more than property confiscations; which has a ring of validity to it in an absolute capitalistic system. Regulating and limiting the profits of property owners is not the governmental role Adam Smith envisioned.
                                                                                                         "The Bridge"

                             Nominal Property Taxes

Rent control and stabilization reduces the New York City coffers by artificially lowering property tax income. A study of NYC’s rent regulations effects of the 1980’s suggests a loss of $4 billion in property taxes[1]. There is an administrative cost the city must undertake in order to insure consumer rental rights are being upheld. Bureaucratic entities must be established and maintained so that records of regulated units are kept up to date and responsible for the appeals and complaint hearings to be resided over. This is a cost that can be saved and seen as a pro if rent regulations were to be ended.

Economic Segregation

Subsidized and regulated apartments cause an ersatz rise of rents across unregulated units and misrepresents the supply of apartments in comparison to demand. In turn increasing the likely hood of discrimination against the poor and young who might not be able to meet the modern criteria put in place by land owners for tenants to gain occupancy. New metrics of determining renters’ worthiness other than financial stability are subjective, prejudicial and unconstitutional.

"The Hamptons"

But If I Go It Will Be Double $$

On the opposite side of the opinion spectrum, rent control and stabilization provides a necessary blanket of protection for apartment renters. Without safe guards in place the deregulation of housing would cause mass upheaval, by displacing thousands, possibly millions of families. Many long-term tenants would suddenly be uprooted or subjugated to unit renters who would undoubtedly increase rents beyond the means of many middle class and poor residents. Many of the cities stabilized renters are elderly who live on fixed incomes; if that at all. There are as well many on parent households who rely on the rent stabilization and would be crippled if these policies were to be reversed. It is the moral and social responsibility of those with to assist those without.

Close Your Eyes and Click Your Heels 3 Times

God willing; there will come a day when every individual will have the capability to provide themselves the basic necessities of life, and in no way does this mean the unmotivated are to be carried. Just that a society is judged by how it treats it most unfortunate sons.  An additional benefit of regulated rents is higher income renters have more discretionary funds to spend and boost local economies. These more affluent controlled or stabilized unit inhabitants support commerce and generate sales tax stretching over the many different varieties of commercial businesses citywide.

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[1] Peat Marwick, A Financial Analysis of Rent Regulation in New York City: Costs and Opportunities (1988).