[edblarney]

" complain instead that "cities like Munich, Frankfurt or Hamburg" do not do enough to prevent rent price hikes."

Rent is undeniably a function of the market.

Setting rent prices is like fixing bread, milk egg and gasoline prices.

Of course, at the margins, in specific cases, some things can be done.

Surely things like limiting how much rent can be raised in a year, maintaining renters rights etc. - or even zoning to make sure that there are types of housing that will facilitate different types of people ...

But there isn't really a huge problem. Even in Frankfurt and Munich there are tons of low-cost places - just not right downtown. Tons of decent flats around town.