FAQs

Whether we rent or own—no matter where we live—everyone should be able to afford a place to call home.

But right now, out-of-control housing costs driven by corporate real estate investors are making it impossible for hundreds of thousands of families in Massachusetts to make ends meet and holding back our entire economy.

Under current state law, there is no limit to the amount landlords can increase rents every year. Rents can double overnight.

High rents displace workers and seniors from their communities, force people to work multiple jobs just to pay the rent, and make it impossible for young families to save money to achieve the dream of owning a home.

By coming together to win rent control on the ballot, we can keep Massachusetts home for all of us.

We need basic protections against excessive rent hikes to keep people in their homes, support working families, and stabilize communities across Massachusetts. Modern rent stabilization is the immediate relief we need to protect people as we work to fully address our state’s housing crisis.

Rent control will stabilize our communities, protect the essential workers that support our entire economy, and keep rent costs reasonable and predictable so that renters can save and have a fair shot at the dream of owning a home.

Rent stabilization will protect the essential workers that support our entire economy, and keep rent costs reasonable and predictable so that renters can save and have a fair shot at the American Dream of owning a home.

Sky-high rents make it impossible for young families who are aspiring homeowners to save money for a down payment. We need to stabilize rents to promote homeownership and stabilize our local communities.

Housing stability is essential for our children’s education and success; having to move and switch schools is highly disruptive for a child’s development. By protecting access to affordable and consistent housing, we can ensure children in Massachusetts are able to put down roots in their community and stay close to their friends, families, and teachers.

Stabilizing rents will also protect seniors who wish to age in place or remain in communities close to family and friends. Older adults are the fastest growing population of people experiencing homelessness, as rents are increasing far more than many can afford.

Finally, rent stabilization benefits renters and homeowners alike, by creating neighborhood-level stability so families can build long-lasting relationships with their neighbors and create a network of support for themselves and their children.

Our ballot initiative, An Initiative Petition to Protect Tenants by Limiting Rent Increases, would limit annual rent increases in Massachusetts to the cost of living (as measured by the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index) with a cap at 5%.

For an apartment that costs $2,000 per month, that means an annual increase in monthly rent of no more than $100/month.

The limit on rent increases will continue to apply when new renters move in, meaning rent cannot be drastically increased between tenants.

Our ballot measure will support small landlords, not big corporations, by exempting owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units.

It will encourage housing production and economic growth, by applying rent limits to new construction only after a building’s first 10 years.

Designed with input from residents and experts across Massachusetts, this modern rent stabilization policy will protect tenants from big corporate investors who unreasonably increase rents, while allowing local landlords to earn a reasonable profit and enabling new construction to address housing shortages.

The primary factors affecting new housing development are well understood — exclusionary zoning, high costs of material and labor, and fluctuating interest rates. The claim that rent control discourages new construction is not backed by data.

In order to make it crystal clear that our policy encourages continued development to address housing shortages, this bill includes a ten-year exemption for new construction, giving builders the certainty they need while still protecting tenants from displacement.

Housing supply - especially affordable housing - is one of many important solutions we need to address our housing crisis, but there are many others. Rent stabilization is a no-cost tool that would provide immediate relief to tenants across the state.

As state leaders seek to address the housing crisis through policies such as the MBTA Communities law that will take decades to make a dent in the cost of housing, Massachusetts renters need immediate relief from skyrocketing rent increases.

Because Massachusetts has no limit on how much rents can be increased each year, profit-seeking corporate real estate investors are increasingly buying homes and hiking rents astronomically, raising the price of housing for everyone else.

In Greater Boston, nearly a quarter of all residential properties sold are now purchased by investors, and the number is rising. In some neighborhoods, nearly half of all real estate purchases are made by investors - not regular homeowners. 

This isn’t just a Boston problem - investors are increasingly active in our Gateway Cities and rural communities. In many communities, 20-30% of residential sales are made to investors.

These aren’t mom-and-pop investors looking to make some money on the side. Nearly 1 in 10 apartment units in Massachusetts is now owned by a private equity investment firm.

And these corporate real estate investors are using algorithmic price-fixing technology like RealPage AI to decrease competition and raise rents.

All tenants in Massachusetts have a legal right to safe, habitable housing, regardless of how much they pay in rent. But in reality, many tenants are already forced to live in substandard conditions because they are afraid to speak up for their rights, knowing their landlord can retaliate with a drastic rent hike.

The ballot initiative still allows landlords to increase rents every year, in order to maintain their properties; it simply limits the amount of the increase to the cost of living up to a reasonable cap, holding larger, profit-driven landlords accountable.

Multiple studies have found no evidence that modern rent stabilization policies lead to poorer housing quality.

Profit-driven corporate landlords are already raising the rent as much as they can get tenants to pay - they don’t need an excuse to jack up the rent. Rent stabilization will prevent them from hiking the rent excessively year after year, and finally provide some predictability to rent prices.

Whether or not we'll be directly impacted by the ballot question, passing rent control will help us all by stabilizing our neighborhoods and communities.

We all lose when our friends, families and neighbors are pushed out of the places they call home by big corporate real estate investors. Passing rent control will help shift the balance of power back towards renters, not the predatory corporate landlords who are buying up homes and driving up rents for everyone.

And, this campaign will help us build the collective power we need to make sure that every renter is protected from excessive rent increases, no matter who their landlord is.

This ballot initiative is designed to protect tenants without affecting small, local landlords.

That’s because the real driving force behind rising rents in Massachusetts isn’t mom-and-pop landlords — it’s corporate investors and out-of-state developers who prioritize profit over community by buying up properties, increasing rents, and evicting tenants who cannot pay.

Our proposal specifically exempts owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units, ensuring that homeowners who rent out part of their properties aren’t unduly burdened.

The ballot initiative still allows landlords to increase rents every year, in order to maintain their properties; it simply limits the amount of the increase to the cost of living up to a reasonable cap, holding larger, profit-driven landlords accountable.

This change will help shift the housing market away from larger corporate real estate investors and towards local homeowners and landlords who are invested in their communities.

For decades, real estate interests and conservative economists have painted rent control as a failed policy that shrinks housing supply and hurts the very tenants it aims to protect.

But in recent years, a wide array of new studies — from USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and even the Harvard Business Review — make a different case, finding that rent stabilization provides stability for the households most at risk of displacement, and do not significantly suppress new housing construction.

Research finds that rent stabilization increases tenant housing stability, which correlates with better health outcomes, school performance, and community engagement. Rent control can also help reduce gentrification-fueled displacement, especially when paired with affordable housing development.

We’re pursuing a statewide rent stabilization policy because all working families, everywhere in the state, deserve basic protection from excessive rent hikes.

The crisis of skyrocketing rents and displacement driven by corporate real estate investors is hitting every part of the state, from the Berkshires to the Cape, and from cities like Lynn and Springfield to towns like Southbridge and Medford.

Going to the ballot isn’t a decision we take lightly, and we want to ensure that a ballot initiative protects all renters, and all communities, in Massachusetts.

In poll after poll, voters say the high cost of housing is one of their top priorities - often the highest. And they support rent control as 

In an April 2025 poll of Massachusetts registered voters conducted for the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, 69% listed the cost and availability of housing as “very important,” more than energy prices or the state of the overall economy.

In a March 2025 poll of Massachusetts voters conducted for Abundant Housing Massachusetts, 22% of voters listed housing as the biggest issue facing state government in Massachusetts, and 67% said the cost of renting or buying a home in Massachusetts was “a big problem.”

In a February 2025 poll of Massachusetts residents conducted by YouGov for the University of Massachusetts Amherst and WCVB, 70% of respondents supported limits on how much rents can be increased each year.