ABSTRACT
This summarises the most important consequences of legally established rent control or of rents depressed below the market level through public construction projects. It concentrates primarily on how these interventions influence the global supply of rental space as well as its composition, how they affect the apportioning of this supply among those looking for housing, and what is their impact on income distribution and production conditions in general, notably the supply of capital and the wage level. A substantial discrepancy is bound to arise between the rents of the best apartments erected with public funds and the slightly superior apartments constructed with private funds, with the result that a large number of people who, if rents were evenly graduated, might still have been willing to pay for a slightly higher-quality apartment, will be tempted by the relatively larger savings to settle for a poorer-quality apartment.
