[mhays]

It's hard to answer that without more details, or given that you're just giving an example rather than evidence. However...

When choosing whether to build a building, the developer and financial partners will guess about future rent increases. If increases are limited to 2% for example, many won't build. If they do build, they'll have higher initial rents, because early vacancies are better than being stuck with low rents. Then they'll raise rents 2% per year even in down years rather than fall behind. The effect is diminished with a higher allowed increase.

If rents fall below market rates, there's no much incentive to keep the renters happy, and sometimes actually some incentive to get them to leave, which is related to a lot of poorly-maintained buildings in New York and San Francisco.

Rent control sells among some voters because it sounds good, and much of this stuff is frankly over their heads. But while it helps some people it screws basically everyone else. Except condo owners like me.