Found a small, privately-owned 8 or so unit apartment building that a coworker of mine was living at back when I was in school. She recommended me to the apartment manager/owner, who then gave me a good deal on a unit that needed things re-done (carpet, paint, etc.) by not renovating it as planned. Since it's rent-controlled they've only increased my rent by a small amount twice in my 5 years living there.

if they only increased it twice, then that's not due to rent control, which allowed for 8% each year (recently changed to 5%)

No. You misunderstand what I said.

My unit is rent-controlled. However, the owner of the building has only increased rent twice, both being the max they could under the rent control limit. They just haven't continually increased it on an annual basis because apparently they haven't needed to.

so you're saying they "banked" the increase

still, an annualized 8% is quite a bit (over 5 years it would be 46%)

Yeah. I'm honestly very fortunate in my situation. Many low income families pay more and don't necessarily have rent control like I do.