4. The rent-control ordinances that cities sometimes enact usually try to restrict rent increases to the amount of the owners' cost increases. Use the analysis of this chapter in thinking about the following questions. a) What is the cost to a landlord of renting an apartment to you for $500 if someone else is willing to pay $600? What is the benefit of renting to you? b) What effect will a rent-control ordinance have on the cost to landlords of letting an apartment unit stand idle, or of using it themselves, or of allowing relatives to live in it rent- free? c) What concept of cost do you think supporters of rent controls have in mind when they speak of basing maximum rents on landlords' costs