Argentina’s recent repeal of rent control by libertarian President Javier Milei has led to a surge in housing supply, with the freedom to negotiate contracts, previously restricted, directly causing a drop in rental prices…
Since Millei’s repeal of rent control laws took effect on December 29, the supply of rental housing in Buenos Aires has jumped by 195.23%, according to the Statistical Observatory of the Real Estate Market of the Real Estate College.
DB2
Free markets work? Who would have thought?
Amazing!
It must be conspiracy!
The Captain
Let’s see how long they work in Argentina…
Rent controls are used to prevent price gouging.
How long will it take for price gouging to become an issue?
Wait for the next revolution…
Argentina is extremely revealing as it has long been deeply corrupt, from top to bottom, and features political fights over how to next manage the last collapse.
As soon as housing prices fall two different groups will sweep in: rich foreigners who (like me) adore the culture, and wealthy local families who specialize in using corruption/reform and the mostly non-correlated leftist/rightist sweeps in the politics to invest locally or carefully manage familial capital flght.
d fb
That’s the rub. Rent controls discourage building more units which in turns drives up rents. But things like zoning can also prevent building more units, which also drives up rents.
Landlords have a collective interest in preventing upzoning, because it keeps rents high. So if you are a tenant, you are just kind of screwed no matter what happens.
But this also illustrates why there isn’t actually a free market for rents in many cases. Unless you can freely add more units, the market is being artificially limited.
You mean “let’s see how long free markets last in Argentina” 
Milei Has Deregulated Something Every Day
https://www.cato.org/blog/milei-has-deregulated-something-every-day
Argentina’s President Javier Milei promised to take his chainsaw to regulations when he assumed power a year ago this week. His newly created Ministry of Deregulation began functioning in July, and virtually every day, Minister Federico Sturzenegger announces one or numerous regulatory reforms…
His success in shrinking government largesse, balancing the budget, and reducing inflation are well known. Less appreciated is how much he’s been deregulating…Out of the total amount of reforms, 331 eliminated regulations and 341 modified existing regulations…
We should note that prioritizing deregulation makes sense. A legacy of the corporatist state that Peronism entrenched, Argentina is one of the most regulated countries in the world. On the Fraser Institute’s economic freedom index, Argentina ranks 146 out of 165 countries in terms of regulatory burden.
DB2
And the US ranks 4th. Let’s hope our leaders are honest. Those who will push the Argentinian story to further deregulate the US are…dishonest.