Rent controlled stupidity

Apparently over 100 people turned up to look at a rent controlled "affordable housing" flat today in Annandale.

The SMH of course led with a predictable heart rending sob story:

WITHIN minutes of arriving to inspect the modest two-bedroom flat in Johnston Street, Annandale, Renee Gray's heart sank.

The single mother had barely taken her place in the small queue when scores of people, desperate to secure one of the few rent-capped apartments in the inner city, began to arrive.

It's nice to see that there are still scores of people around who are able to turn up on time. You normally only get a 15 minute window of opportunity to view these things, so the late, the lame and lazy miss out. Given how late people are to appointments (and how bloody rude I think that is), it gladdens the heart to see that there are still some people out there that can keep an appointment.

The swarm of prospective tenants was attracted by the apartment block's affordable housing zoning, which means the rent is capped at $295 - considerably less than the rent on many one-bedroom flats of similar quality in the area.

You reckon? Sheesh, where do they get journalists these days. If something is being offered at well below market rate, people will come from everywhere to have a bit of it. What else do they expect to happen? The more people that turn up, the more it tells me that the place is radically underpriced.

That so many lined up for the opportunity to see a reasonably priced apartment underlines the critical lack of low-rent housing in Sydney.

No, what it says is that although there is plenty of low rent housing on the outskirts of Sydney, it underlines how much some people don't want to move out to the fringe. It shows how desirable an inner-city address is to every class of people.

"People are flocking to these places and that means there is a lot of competition. When that happens there is a concern that people end up bidding for tenancies rather than rents reflecting the actual value."

That is just an incredibly stupid statement. The value of anything is what someone is willing to pay for it. The actual value is what someone will pay. This idiot thinks that the actual value is a price that he thinks is reasonable. Sorry, life ain't fair. Who said that the price of anything had to be 'reasonable'?