Ahh, so what you're actually saying is rent freezes discourage landlords from renovating their property (with their tenant's money) and charging more rent afterwards?
Most people struggling to pay rent want a place that's functional, not one that's lavish. Once everyone has a functional place to live for a fair price, then we can focus on frivolities.
The alternative is deficit spending which is the goal. That way poor people get penalized.
Everything is overpriced so that the people making more money than us can make even more money. It has nothing to do with keeping the lights on and only useful idiots think otherwise.
He's doing whatever he can to avoid admitting that he bought into rhetoric that only exists to make people richer than him even richer.