L.A. County wants to cap rent hikes at 3%. Landlords say that would push them to sell

return2ozma@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 844 points –
L.A. County wants to cap rent hikes at 3%. Landlords say that would push them to sell
latimes.com

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3% was the top annual pay increase at the Fortune 500 company I used to work at. 3% max increase for those that "exceeded all expectations". Probably less than 1/3 of employees.

So if it's good enough for a Fortune 500 company, it's good enough for every landlord. 3% max, and only to max 1/3 of their locations/rooms.

My old company's "top" level required the VP to sign off on. So maybe 1-2 people in a department of 150 got it.

One of the issues is if material costs to maintain the property increase steeper than this cap.

Though the solution is pretty practical -- cap it at inflation.

Don't really care honestly, since the prices they're charging now are nowhere near their operating costs as it is.

They can take a hit to their profit. Or sell an "unprofitable" property.

This is the truth. You need to create conditions that make renting unprofitable and unsustainable, and all of a sudden property prices will begin to fall as landlords sell. This happened in London after WW2, when renting was over-regulated and most of the residents ended up owning their own apartments as landlords sold off property. After deregulation, the reverse trend began again.

And this is somehow not a problem for salary increases?