Newsom Expects to Sign Rent Cap

SACRAMENTO—California lawmakers sent governor Gavin Newsom legislation yesterday capping rent increases as the state struggles with an affordable housing and a homeless crisis. Assembly members voted 46-22 to limit annual rent increases at 5% plus inflation. The cap expires in 2030 and would not apply to housing built within the last 15 years and single-family homes not owned by corporations or trusts. Also exempt are duplexes where the owner lives in one unit.

Tenant Protection Act of 2019, AB 1482, as amended:

This bill would, until January 1, 2030, prohibit an owner of residential real property from, over the course of any 12-month period, increasing the gross rental rate for a dwelling or unit more than 5% plus the percentage change in the cost of living, as defined, or 10%, whichever is lower, of the lowest gross rental rate charged for the immediately preceding 12 months, subject to specified conditions. The bill would prohibit an owner of a unit of residential real property from increasing the gross rental rate for the unit in more than two increments over a 12-month period, after the tenant remains in occupancy of the unit over a 12-month period.

Doug Bibby, president of the National Multifamily Housing Council, issued a statement this morning on AB 1482.

“The most effective way to fix California’s housing crisis is by building more housing across a range of price points and AB 1482 makes that harder to do. After Californians overwhelmingly rejected the rent control ballot initiative less than a year ago, lawmakers today went against their constituents by passing a measure that will discourage investment, shrink the availability of affordable housing that already exists and squeeze even more people struggling in the housing market,” Bibby says. “This makes the problem worse. The housing affordability crisis is real, real Americans are being harmed by it every day and we need real solutions–not restrictive policies that we know don’t work.”