Mayor must scrap rent control push after Berlin's disaster

City Hall Tories have demanded Sadiq Khan end his call for rent controls in London after a new German analysis showed Berlin’s rent freeze led to a 41 per cent fall in supply in one year. The study showed that within a year of Berlin’s rent freeze the supply of rental apartments fell by 41 per cent while demand soared by 172 per cent. In contrast, other German cities without the new rule saw the number of rental apartments increase by 35%. The analysis was done by German online real estate market ImmoScout24.

Sadiq Khan is calling for City Hall to be given rent control powers so London can follow Berlin’s example. The Mayor said in September: “if Berlin can freeze rents for five years, there’s no reason London shouldn’t be able to freeze rents for two years in these extraordinary times.”

Andrew Boff AM, GLA Conservative Housing Spokesman, commented: “Rent controls have never worked, anywhere in the world. But in case there was any doubt, Berlin’s disastrous experience is yet another example of rent controls backfiring on a city. “Instead of playing a dangerous populist game with rent controls, Sadiq Khan needs to focus on building the homes Londoners desperately need. If the Mayor had completed more than 16,744 affordable homes in the past four years using the £4.82 billion of funding at his disposal, he could have eased the cost of renting in London.

“Sadiq Khan cannot continue to ignore the weight of evidence against rent controls. Wherever this failed socialist idea has been tried property standards and rental stock has plummeted. By following Berlin’s lead, Khan would hammer renters in London and make our city’s housing crisis worse.”