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However, rent control, which forcibly lowers rents below what willing tenants would offer, takes away that right and much of the value of the landlords’ properties in the process. That is theft, enforced by government guns rather than robbers’ guns. Worse, rent control directly violates the central role of government—the protection of citizens’ existing property rights—as John Locke explained long ago, echoed by America’s founders.

https://mises.org/wire/call-rent-control-what-it-really-theft

As reported by Reason, Colorado—one of thirty-one states that had banned its local governments from imposing rent control—is considering repealing that ban. Recent efforts to allow or impose similar controls have also taken place in New York, California, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Minnesota. However, there is a good reason that most states still ban the local imposition of rent control laws.

The key reason is that the primary advantage of local determination in a federal system—allowing people mistreated by one government body to better protect themselves by “voting with their feet” to less abusive jurisdictions—does not apply to rent control laws. That is because neither selling nor moving allows owners of rental property to escape the imposed burdens.

In many circumstances, voting with your feet favors local governance. It is generally less costly to leave a local government jurisdiction whose benefits are not worth the cost than it is to leave a similarly bad state government jurisdiction, which is less costly to leave than to leave the United States entirely. The enhanced exit option may better protect citizens’ rights against abuse. For instance, residents who view state sales and income taxes as not giving them their money’s worth in benefits can avoid those burdens by going to another state with lower tax rates or better services. However, the same is not true of rent control, whether imposed locally or at the state level.

Owners of rent-controlled properties can move away. However, if they maintain ownership of their property, they are still forced to bear the burden of reduced earnings caused by rent control. If they sell their property, they bear the burden of reduced rental income in the form of a lower sales price that capitalizes the lower revenues the property will generate. Consequently, even selling your property and leaving the jurisdiction provide no escape.

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