ABSTRACT

Regulation as a response to market failure has a checkered history, with periods of intense activity and enthusiasm, followed by reversals and deregulation. Residential rent control, the public regulation of the rent charged to tenants for housing accommodation, occupies an anomalous position, both in housing policy and in the broader realm of regulation. In Ontario, calls for the reinstitution of some form of rent regulation began in the early 1970s in response to double-digit inflation, rising unemployment, record-low vacancy rates, and increasing concern about “rent gouging” in several major cities, including Toronto. Hard experience and constitutional limitations have led advocates of rental regulation to modify both their expectations and their policy recommendations. From the outset, many of the policy issues raised by rent regulation have been decided by the courts, rather than by the administrative or legislative branches of government, as those frustrated in other arenas have sought redress in legal forums.