Rent controls help keep a lid on greed

Re Rent Control is counterproductive, Letters,

April 25 I’m not an economist but I am a humanist. I am struck by the fact that Professor David Goldreich never refers once to the impact rental prices have on those who rent.

While it is true that we are running out of construction spots in city cores and homes are getting scarcer, it seems to me there is a question of greed as well as scarcity.

Rental units are not being built, as was expected after the removal of rent controls in 1995. Instead, we have rampant condo building, which allows builders to make profits much sooner than with rental units. Condos sell before shovel hits ground, rents start being collected after the buildings are completed.

Also, rental of condos became an investment venture, where greed became especially noticed. Renters of condo units are finding their rents increasing 100 per cent in one year. Is there an economic reason for this increase?

And if, as Goldreich says, rent controls mean people may stay longer in rental units, communities become stronger and more stable. Home ownership should not be the only criteria for stable neighbourhoods. Mary Samulewski, Toronto