This paper reexamines the debated issue of the effects of rent control policy on the rental market. We investigate the impact on rents of three different forms of rent regu- lation in Lyon over a 78-year period. We use an original historical data set which allows us to track regulation changes, rent paid, and tenant moves for a long-run panel of flats. Using a difference-in-differences method, we es- timate the impact of regulation on rents depending on the type of rent control over different economic periods. Our results show that the impact of rent control deep- ened over time. Starting with an 11% reduction in rents between 1914 and 1929, it reached a decrease by 47% in the regulated rental market in the 1949–1968 period. We do not find any increase in rents in the unregulated seg- ment of the rental market, which could be a result of a reduction in housing investment in the long run.