As for the substantive issue, I have the same issue with anti-rent control arguments that I have with anti-union arguments, namely that they tend to be advanced by people whose ideologies don't lend themselves to seeing affordable housing as a moral imperative at all. Unlike with unions, though, I'm not emotionally wedded to the idea of rent control and would be happy to reconsider or even abandon my support for it if a clear, non-vague, politically actionable (i.e. not "just abolish zoning regulations and development firms will throw up tons of cheap housing on their own!") alternative were articulated to me.
Yes, agree with this. People generally don't think rent controls are a panacea, they are being proposed now because the supposed "supply side solutions" have clearly failed.
Ah yes, instituting insane energy efficiency requirements will surely make housing more cheaper, and therefore more abundant, certainly a great "supply-side solution".
If Berlin wants to do something, they can look at Vienna. Newer properties have no rent caps, and the only reason housing is relatively cheap is the massive stock of 220,000 govt owned flats that serve multiple purposes.
The govt owned flats have very high-income caps, which is intentional in order to mix higher and middle-class people with the working class, thereby not forming non-desireable areas and lowering the crime rates while allowing for better upward mobility for the working class in the area.
But seeing as the unnoficial motto of Berlin is "poor but sexy", they could only dream of affording something like that.
