My mental model of rent control is that it's a policy of that favors those "that are already there" at the expense of "newcomers". A special case of this is fav

My mental model of rent control is that it's a policy of that favors those "that are already there" at the expense of "newcomers". A special case of this is favoring older generations vs. younger generations. For instance, in Berlin I know people that have locked in a low rent on an old contract who chose to say in their rental despite owning real estate close by. So for them - who have been there for decades - rent is very affordable. On the flipside, it's very common for dozens or close to a hundred people showing up for open houses when a new rental comes onto the market (still at the prescribed low rates!). Since landlords can freely choose between so many potential tenants they will pick high income, high stability tenants, making it very hard for younger or lower income folks to get into the rental market.