单选题 In essence, all rent-control policies involve specifying a maximum rent that a landlord may charge for a dwelling. The rationale for controlling rents is to protect tenants in situations where limited supply will cause rents to rise sharply in the face of increased demand. However, although rent control may help some tenants in the short run, it affects the rental housing market adversely in the long run because landlords become reluctant to maintain the quality of their existing properties and even more reluctant to have additional rentalhousing units built.
Which one of the following, if true, best explains the landlords' reluctance described above?

A、 Tenants prefer low-quality accommodations with rent control to high-quality accommodations without it.
B、 Rent control makes it very difficult for landlords to achieve reasonable returns on any investments in maintenance or in new construction.
C、 Rent control is a common practice even though it does nothing to alleviate shortages in rental housing.
D、 Rent control is generally introduced for political reasons and it takes political action to have it lifted again.
E、 (E) Tenants prefer rent control to the alternative of receiving direct government subsidies toward rents they cannot afford.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 要解释房东的不情愿行为，就要从房东的自身利益出发。设想在租金管理的政策下，若房东能从维持现有的房地产质量或额外建房中取得公正合理的收益，他们肯定不会在这两方面有不情愿行为。他们之所以有不情愿行为，那肯定是因为租金管理政策使他们很难取得公正合理的收益。不赚钱的事没有人愿干，因此(B)为正确答案。(A)、(C)、(D)和(E)即不能从文中合理地推出，也不能用来解释本题的结论。