Your Rent is High Because Your Government is Lying: The Ugly Truth About Housing Policy

The 'Ugly Face' of Rent Control

Government housing policy is a lie wrapped in hypocrisy—lawmakers blame “greedy landlords” while cashing rent checks on their own investment properties behind closed doors. In plain terms, politicians have turned the housing crisis into a political hustle—weaponizing rent control to win votes while pushing working families into overcrowded, overpriced apartments they can’t afford.

Rent control is out of control—and the joke is on renters. You can’t find a place to live? Don’t blame the guy with the key. Blame the guy writing laws from behind a mahogany desk who has never paid rent in his life. For years now, governments around the world have been waging a foolish war against landlords, slapping on rent caps, choking property rights, and taxing rental profits like they’re sins. They’ve sold the public a fairy tale: that greedy landlords are the villains behind your sky-high rent. But like all bad fairy tales, this one ends with a curse—less housing, more competition, and rent prices that keep punching upward like they’re in a heavyweight fight.

Take Germany, for instance. In 2015, the country launched its famous “rent brake,” forcing landlords to consult a government list before pricing rent. The result? Fewer landlords, less housing, and more frustrated renters. Britain jacked up taxes on landlords. Spain strangled rent increases with harsh rules. Ireland capped rent hikes at inflation or 2%, whichever is lower. California, New York, and Oregon? All marched in the same line, tightening rent controls and limiting landlord freedoms. Governments across the globe have copied each other like failing students on a final exam, only to realize their answers are all wrong.

And wrong they are. The real villain in this housing horror story isn’t the landlord trying to cover mortgage payments—it’s the government choking off the supply of housing. When construction is tied down by red tape and zoning laws are built like brick walls, how can anyone expect enough homes to be available? Immigration is rising, demand is rising, but supply? Stuck in the basement. In Barcelona, 75% fewer rental homes were listed in 2024 than in 2019, and a staggering 63 families scrambled for each listing. In Ireland, tenancies dropped 23% between 2016 and 2022, even as the population rose by 9%. That’s not math. That’s madness.

Governments think that if landlords leave, tenants will just buy up the empty homes and live happily ever after. But real life doesn’t work like a bedtime story. Buying a house is expensive, complicated, and loaded with hurdles. Property taxes, legal delays, and mortgage rates make renting the only option for millions. When governments choke the rental market, they’re not helping renters—they’re fencing them in.

Let’s call this what it is: a war on landlords that’s killing the rental market and stabbing economic mobility in the gut. When rental markets function well, workers can move where the jobs are. But in cities where housing is tighter than a drum, people stay stuck. And stuck workers mean a stuck economy. How do you grow when your workforce can’t move?

This problem didn’t appear out of nowhere. It’s been building for decades, as local governments buried new housing under layers of zoning restrictions, NIMBYism, and endless permits. In California, for example, building anything that doesn’t look like a single-family home from the 1950s is treated like a crime. These rules aren’t protecting neighborhoods—they’re blocking new homes and forcing rents to rise faster than a helium balloon in a hot-air race.

Now take a look at Texas. There, building laws are looser, zoning is flexible, and housing supply is strong. As a result, rents are relatively affordable and the rental market functions without government panic buttons. In Houston, developers build what’s needed, not what’s allowed. And guess what? There’s no rent apocalypse. When you let builders build, the market breathes.

Of course, it’s easier to blame landlords. It’s always easier to punch the middleman than admit the system is broken. But that punch is hitting the wrong target. A landlord with a few rental properties is not the enemy. In fact, many landlords are regular people—teachers, retirees, or small investors trying to earn some income on the side. When you chase them out of the market with rent freezes and punishing taxes, what you get isn’t justice. What you get is fewer places to live.

Even worse, rent controls lead landlords to cut back on maintenance. Why invest in a property when you’re not allowed to adjust the rent to match inflation, repairs, or rising costs? The government says, “Don’t raise the rent,” but when the pipes burst or the heater fails, tenants are left freezing while politicians pat themselves on the back for “protecting renters.” This is protection theater. The audience sees a hero, but backstage, the house is falling apart.

And here's another thing: shortages give landlords more—not less—power. With long waiting lists, landlords can pick and choose. And renters desperate for housing will put up with anything—bad plumbing, moldy ceilings, and silence when they ask for repairs. Is that tenant protection? No. That’s just legalized suffering.

It’s not just about economics. This is about truth and misdirection. Politicians like to quote statistics and wave around “affordability plans,” but they avoid the core issue: they don’t build. They regulate. They restrict. They punish. And the people suffer. Renters are not free. They’re trapped in a maze built by their own so-called protectors.

Some governments are waking up. Ireland is thinking about ditching its rent controls. But it’s too little, too late for the thousands already priced out or forced to share tiny apartments with too many people. The only real solution is to build more homes—lots more. Not five years from now. Not after endless meetings and reports. Now. Build more, regulate less, and let landlords rent freely in a market where housing is not rationed like wartime sugar.

We’re told landlords are the problem. But landlords didn’t ban new construction. Landlords didn’t block zoning reforms. Landlords didn’t create housing shortages. Governments did. They tied up supply with regulations, stoked demand with immigration, and then blamed the middleman when the math exploded.

If you’re cold, don’t blame the coat. Blame the weatherman who told you it was summer. And if you can’t find a place to rent, stop blaming the landlord. Blame the bureaucrat who wrapped the market in red tape and handed you a torch. You were never meant to find shelter—you were meant to find someone to blame.

It’s no wonder politicians love rent control. It lets them pretend they’re solving problems while doing nothing useful. That’s not housing policy. That’s playing Monopoly with someone else’s money—and everyone’s losing except the guy with the luxury tax square.