It is extremely dangerous to have market prices for necessities of life that people cannot opt out of. If market rents were to be introduced, rents would therefore probably skyrocket.
Overcrowding would increase with the health risks this entails. In overcrowded homes, it is more difficult for the children to have study breaks.
The quality of the apartments for the most vulnerable would decrease as tenants would be prepared to accept an unhealthy standard if they received slightly lower rents in exchange. Trade in society would decrease as the purchasing power of the low-income earners and also the middle class would to a greater extent only go to housing costs instead of to trade with various different companies. As trade in many businesses declines, unemployment and bankruptcies would spread.
#market rents
Raise your voice against #hireshock here!
I think you are right in your conclusion but wrong in your argumentation. It is not because housing is necessary that prices would rise with market rents. Even air is necessary, and food. But air is free and food is so cheap that those who produce it get almost nothing.
According to Manuel Castells: The city and the grassroots, market rents lead to higher rents because housing is produced under monopolistic conditions. Land is ALWAYS monopolized, ie more land cannot be produced simply because it is in demand. And at least in Sweden, the production process is extremely monopolized with the municipalities in a sort of regulatory role in symbiosis with the largest construction companies.
We had a discussion about this at Yimby, with municipally employed planning architects who certified that there is absolutely no construction planning in municipalities that is not paid by the construction company that happens to want to build something. There is no budget for anything else, and according to the dogmas of New Public Management, public activities must operate like a private company. Therefore, construction is kept down.
See my blog post about this, with links: https://gemensam.wordpress.com/2020/02/21/nar-korruption-blir-tillrackligt-stor-kallas-den-inte-langre-korruption/
There is no end in itself with price controls, they usually lead to black markets. Better would be a combination of the kind of building planning that applied in the 1800s - you take things to the extreme - with municipal housing companies that have orders to build as much as they can. With a large range, the market price can be kept down.
But as I said, you are right that with current market conditions no one will profit from market rents except those who already own a lot of properties. That is, resources will be plowed into what already exists instead of producing new ones.