We bought a small park in 2021 for $1,200,000. The average rent was $375 (market rent for the area was around $650)
From talking to the tenants, we learned:
1) The laundry room was so bad no one used it (the closest laundromat was 7 miles away)
2) Almost all tenants were renting a storage space off site at an average cost of $100/mo
3) The open spaces were badly overgrown and unusable, so multiple tenants parked additional vehicles off site.
Rents have gone up, but the property is still the most affordable housing in the area. Additionally:
1) The laundry room was rehabbed and upgraded with new equipment
2) We established onsite storage and parking (at an average cost of $50/mo)
3) We also leased up vacant units, upgraded power, and added security cameras and lighting
The park is worth around $2,500,000 today, and while rents are higher, the property is much more "affordable" now than it was before: tenants don't have to drive to do laundry and are saving money on storage and parking.
Raising rents doesn't reduce affordability, and by increasing cash flow responsible owners can effectively leverage a property to increase its livability and affordability, just like we did here.
Placing artificial restrictions on rent growth DOES NOT make properties more affordable; it forces low-income tenants into making expensive and inefficient choices in order to accomplish basic household tasks like laundry and storage.