>You could argue that from the point of view of the county's social democrat and socialist city council, that the rent control have worked as intended, in that

>You could argue that from the point of view of the county's social democrat and socialist city council, that the rent control have worked as intended, in that the locals where not displaced to the same extent that a rent boom would result in. Sure, this aids the locals on the short term and is politically popular, but I fear this kind of local protectionism and NIMBYism will further nerf the EU economically on the long term on the global stage (EU economy is now half the size of the US one, when 20 years ago we were on par). I'm thinking on SF and the Bay Area. The tech boom there caused a lot of gentrification and displacement which was bad for some of the locals, but the tech industry there was still a massive net benefit to the US economy in the grand scheme of things. So I don't think rent control and price brakes for the locals is the right solution. IMHO you should let the free market run its course and have government programs in place to assist people who can't keep up economically so they can realocate to more affordable areas and invest in those areas with infrastructure to make them desirable to live and attract future jobs.