Housing unions and the Greens have called for rent controls to tackle the ever growing affordability crisis for private renters

The Green Party has previously proposed bringing in rent control policies to address the UK’s affordability crisis in the private renter market, a move widely backed by housing unions.

Introducing rent regulations are not that radical, with countries across the world having brought in controls in an attempt to protect tenants hit by soaring rents and the cost-of-living crisis. 

Caroline Lucas recently tabled a motion that called on the government to set up a Living Rent Commission, tasked with consultation on and designing a national rent control system. A few Labour MPs signed the motion, despite Labour’s leadership being accused of making a U-turn last year on their pledge to bring in rent controls.

Currently, the status quo of rents rising beyond what people can afford is unsustainable, so what have other places done to address the issue? 

Germany 

German authorities brought in a nationwide Rent Control law, Mietpreisbremse, in 2015 which meant landlords couldn’t extend rents by more than 10% above the rent index for that neighbourhood, which is set by the local government. If a landlord chooses to charge more than the permitted rent the tenant is eligible for a rent reduction. 

It applies to high-demand urban areas such as Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt to address soaring rents and was recently extended through to 2029.

France 

Since 2019, in Paris and other big cities the rent control rule was toughened with a maximum rent ceiling. Rent in these areas can only be increased in line with inflationary increase in the rental index, with 28 regions of France now included in the rent control areas. 

During the cost of living crisis the government went further to fight the rising costs for households by capping property rent rises at 3.5 percent for a year in 2022. 

New York City

In New York, there are rent controlled apartments that operate under the ‘Maximum Base Rent (MBR) system which determines a maximum rent for each individual apartment, adjusted every two years. 

There are both rent controlled flats and apartments under rent stabilization, with the later where a legal limit is imposed on how much a tenant can be charged in rent. This can only be increased by a percentage that is decided each year by the Rent Guidelines Board. Last year, this was by 3% for a one-year lease. 

Canada 

Renting policies vary across Canada with a number of provinces having rent controls in place. In British Columbia, rent can only be increased according to the limits set in the Residential Tenancies Act, which calculated a maximum increase of 1.5% in 2022 and 2% in 2023. 

Furthermore, under the rules tenants must be given three full months notice of rent increases and landlords can only increase rent every 12 months. In Manitoba territory where a similar rent control policy is in place, there was also a rent freeze in 2022 and 2023 when landlords were forbidden to raise rents. 

Scotland 

Emergency legislation to temporarily cap rent in Scotland was introduced in September 2022. This imposed a 3% cap on all-tenancy rent increases in the private sector as well as protections against eviction. It was introduced by the SNP and Scottish Greens coalition in response to the cost of living crisis, however this ended on 31 March. 

Under the legislation, private landlords could only increase rents for existing tenancies by 3%, or up to 6% if approved by a Rent Officer. Now the government has introduced a new process for tenants to challenge a rent increase if it’s thought to be too high although there are fears tenants will now be hit by large rent increases. 

However the Scottish government is set to introduce the Housing (Scotland) Bill which would include a more long-term plan for rent controls. 

(Image Credit: Sludge G / Flickr)

Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward

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