We hardly ever see consideration of the other party in these debates. Tenants cry about high rents. What about supply and demand? There are two main causes o

We hardly ever see consideration of the other party in these debates. Tenants cry about high rents. What about supply and demand? There are two main causes of supply problems: (1) tough building permitting, anti-building policy seemingly; (2) shortage of willing landlords. If I have $5 million dollars to invest, will I invest in San Francisco where (unless I buy post-1979, and 75% of units are rent controlled in SF) -- or will I invest where I can make a return on the investment? Shortage of willing landlords. Shortage of new construction. Almost no one talks about the shortage of willing landlords. It's as if people think "owners have their apartment buildings, they HAVE to be landlords." NO. See here: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/05/because-of-rent-control-sf-has-31000.html http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/05/because-of-rent-control-... - If you make it very difficult/nearly impossible for restaurants to make money, SHORTAGE OF WILLING RESTAUARANT OWNERS. - If you make it very difficult/nearly impossible for dentists to make money, SHORTAGE OF WILLING DENTISTS And so on. The reason no one considers how to entice more landlords (ie. to increase the supply of units) is -- everyone probably thinks "landlords have no choice. They MUST rent their units." It's NOT TRUE. When public policy acknowledges this point -- maybe we can all stop believing "we don't need to entice landlords -- they have units, they MUST rent them out (so we can control and limit their business).