This quote from the article nearly makes me cry: “I'm not worthy of these repairs and these improvements.”
I don't pay much more for my flat now than I did when I first rented it here in Berlin over a decade ago, and I never will because of rent controls.
I should move. I'm getting too old for the current flat sharing setup. My street has become too popular and noisy and annoying. The building is in bad shape.
To stay in my neighborhood, which I love, my rent would double, at least. I could afford it. But every time I consider it, I ask myself if I'm really that annoyed. I decide I'm not, and then I feel queasily guilty about paying a miniscule rent while newcomers suffer, and then complaining about my suboptimal living situation.
I'm not proud, and it's a strange situation to be in.
Now, whether rent control is good for society as a whole, I think that's a very different question with quite the opposite answer.
It's the classic case of economic myopia. Maybe that new job would put you on a career path to be a millionaire in 10 years, but you can't see anything except how you would be losing money (by giving up your rent controlled apartment) in the short-term.
I for one have stayed in one of the highest paying and costliest metro areas in the world in part because I found a great low rent (not controlled) apartment. Moving elsewhere would cost less but also mean moving to a much less dynamic job and startup market.
It so really depends on the actual people. The ones who really want to pursue new opportunities seldom look at the favorable rent in my opinion.