#This is NYC’s best chance to end rent control and win a normal housing market

Rents are collapsing while vacancy rates soar citywide. This is clearly the time to finally free New York City from its unjust, destructive rent laws. That way, at least one good thing would come from this pestilence of a pandemic.

StreetEasy just reported that third-quarter market-rate rents in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens are all below their levels of a year ago — something that last happened in the wake of the Great Recession. The median Manhattan rent dropped below $3,000 for the first time in nearly a decade.

And the trends will continue — the market is fat with inventory, and the pandemic has plainly prompted a lot of people, especially higher earners, to move away permanently. Landlords are offering months of free rent to entice people to commit, even as the law temporarily bans evictions.

Unofficially, the city’s population is down by 500,000, and it won’t soar back up soon. Units are going for an average of 9 percent below the listed amount, and vacancies are still at historic highs.

In theory, this should end the city’s decades-long “housing emergency,” which stands as the legal justification for rent controls. If the vacancy rate is above 5 percent at the time of the next official survey, the rent laws are supposed to expire.

That would indeed be a cause for celebration. Landlords, who are now despairing, are given long-term hope. And it wouldn’t hurt tenants — not when rents are dropping.

Rent control and rent stabilization keep prices artificially low, which discourages move-outs and the private production of affordable housing. Without these laws, nearly everyone would benefit, as a functional market would finally encourage healthy investment in new housing, without the fear that lawmakers would change the rules after the fact.

Yes, a few people with insanely good deals might lose out — but those aren’t the truly poor or even working-class renters that the laws are supposed to help.

We realize that the Democrats who control the Legislature won’t like any of this: They’re all too likely to change the law to keep the phony “emergency” going, since they can score easy political points by denouncing landlords as long as the laws keep the market broken.

But the truth remains: In US cities without rent laws, an abundant apartment supply keeps rents reasonable and provides enough slack so renters — especially low-income ones — can more easily find and move into larger places as their needs change. Government doesn’t have to spend big creating or subsidizing low-income housing.

This is New York’s chance at a normal housing market — an opportunity not to be missed.