One of the many problems of rent controls (at least for those without an expropriatory agenda) is their effect on the value of rental buildings. This operates as a disincentive to landlords to keep their properties well maintained. Making matters worse, it obviously makes it more difficult for landlords to use those properties as collateral to finance any improvements. Worse still, under New York’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, there are strict restrictions on how much landlords can increase rent on rent-stabilized properties to cover costs such as a refurbishment before a new tenant moves in. A key figure in shaping that bill was Cea Weaver, then a prominent “tenant organizer,” before she became an adviser to the Mamdani campaign and then director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

Weaver is a “Democratic” Socialist. Earlier this year, some older posts she had made on social media caused too brief a media storm. As ABC put it at the time, these posts contained “strong views on housing issues.” Weaver’s “strong views” included her describing homeownership as “a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy” and calling for the seizure of “private property.”

Weaver’s “rhetoric,” reported the New York Times, “had played a role in raising her profile within New York housing circles” and not, clearly, in a disqualifying way, although it did “hobble her 2021 bid to join the city’s powerful Planning Commission.” New York housing circles are what they are. In the same Times report, it was noted that Weaver’s “calls to “elect more Communists” and “seize private property” had been well documented in the New York Post.

Oh.

And so to this story from Bloomberg:

Ballooning costs and strict limits on rent increases have spurred losses for many investors in New York City apartments. Among them: the world’s third-richest man.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin offloaded his stake in a New York real estate fund for pennies on the dollar last year after its bets on rent-stabilized apartments soured.

Brin can take the hit (although he shouldn’t have to). Others not so much.