That's what a lease is for. Many rental leases are a "fixed price" for 1 year. If, during that time period, there is a large acceleration in rental prices, it i

That's what a lease is for. Many rental leases are a "fixed price" for 1 year. If, during that time period, there is a large acceleration in rental prices, it is an individual's responsibility to be aware of those consequences and plan accordingly. Unfair? Well, yes, it is. But if rental prices are rising quickly, why is that? Usually one reason is because there are others coming into the market who are paying substantially more. Should they be disallowed from renting that place? Is that fair? The same individual responsibility for the rental price is on the landlord. If prices rise substantially during their renter's lease period, the landlord is going to pay attention to that. If the rental market increases only a little bit, it is not uncommon for landlords to leave the rental price more or less the same when there is an upcoming lease renewal because it is often more of a hassle (and a risk) to jack the price up, potentially piss off the renter, then they move out, and the landlord now has the new hassle and risk of finding a new renter and possibly going one or more months without revenue. But in cases where rents rise, say 25% or more in a 1-year lease period, what should a landlord do? Not raise the price for his renter? Leave that money on the table? Or raise the price, run the risk that the current renter cannot afford it, and they either move out or pay. I'm basically describing normal market behavior. And I think this discussion often devolves into what we often deem to be our "rights" as people. We see the same discussions occurring with healthcare, too, and there are pieces of that applying to housing as well. Renters cannot easily "control" what happens to their supply/demand of rental housing units in their area but when there are large swings, how much "protection" from those swings are people really entitled to? Perpetual rent controls seem awfully unfair, in my view. There has to be at least some form of rent price adaptation that allows a rental unit to always converge towards its market price if a renter is already living in it.