Effective and enforceable responses needed to rapidly rising rents

The problems caused by rapidly rising rents are well documented through endless stories of personal hardship.

But what of the problems that are causing rents to soar far above inflation and anything resembling fairness or sustainability? Are they problems at all, or are they natural, predictable trends and shifts that only become problems because we fail to anticipate, or appropriately react, to them?

One of the biggest influences on the demand for rental properties is population. Despite the recession, the slowdown in immigration and increase in emigration did little to stop the population growing by more than half a million between 2006 and 2016 — 522,017 to be exact.