Working on page and argument summaries for this thread but it's moving a lot faster than I thought.
In the meantime, what about non-managing landlords/owners?
For instance (and to be transparent about my conflicts of interest) I rent in SF in a 4 unit building. The manager is quite nice and lenient. The property was purchased over 50 years ago so I assume it's paid off. The owner keeps raising rent to match market. The owner also only upgrades units when the renter leaves and they can charge a lot more for rent. I've offered to pay for the upgrades they've done in other apartments to be applied to mine out of my own pocket but I've been denied, presumably because they would prefer that I leave my rent controlled place so they can jump the amount significantly (my apartment's clone accross the hall goes for $1k more a month. I've lived in this apartment for 5 years-ish). Is this ethical because it is the owner's property?
This is a common occurrence in SF.
This is a tough question. Personally, on moral ground, if that rent controlled unit is still turning the same profit it was when the rent was established than it is morally repugnant to upcharge by a huge amount for minor improvements or just by raising to meet "market" values.
But its a tough ask when EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT.
The problem here is we have no solution to stop this feedback loop of rising prices. Rent control obviously isn't the golden solution. Honestly I think the biggest roadblock is zoning laws and NIMBY. You need to build more affordable housing. The issue is trying to convince a developer to build affordable housing in an area where they could make a SHITTON more money by building luxury apartments instead. This is an area where we need to address the fact that free market capitalism has largely gone too far unchecked. This is where zoning laws would come in. Which are a BITCH to get enacted due to vested interests, lobbying, and unfortunately grassroots NIMBY movements.
Pata Hikari
Yes Capitalism has its glaring issues... But honestly what is the solution for housing. If you could remake the country tomorrow how would you handle housing and property?