> Now you don’t have to worry about installing good appliances or even nice carpet. The air condition doesn’t work well? Too bad, as long as it meets regulations (if any) then that’s good enough. Why would you if your tenants aren’t choosing based on competition? The tenants suffer, too.

I'm totally against rent control, but London's rogue landlords and its very low quality housing are world famous and people coming from all over the world spend the first 6 month adapting to crazy stuff like carpet, old carpet, 10 year old carpet, fucking carpet, windowless toilets, wooden walls, decaying electrical systems, holes in the walls, carpet (I can't get my head around the idea of having carpet in a flat), etc... and carpet (unless they are in the top 5% of the income distribution and can afford to pay 2-3K£ per month in rent). Air conditioning and half-decent insulation are for the top 1%.

Said that, I don't think London's problem is lack of rent control, but rather it is lack of development of the rest of the country and the government artificially inflating the housing market.