10-20-2018, 04:15 AM
Splitting hairs here, but I'd call it more market manipulation than price fixing. By dramatically reducing the potential for new (or even existing) rentals, the market value of the remaining ones would naturally tend to increase. Price fixing usually implies suppliers of goods or services conspiring to set prices higher than normal market conditions would produce. Either way, it's unethical in all cases and illegal in many. Add in the political component of a council person, Eoff, feathering her own nest by legislating market restrictions, and you might have the material for just what we need, one more lawsuit to clog the local courts. But of course it's all OK because our "ethics commission" says so.