Josh Kraft speaks to reporters and supporters as he launches his run for mayor of Boston at the Prince Hall Grand Lodge in Dorchester on Feb. 4, 2025. Photo by Sam Doran | State House News Service
Boston mayoral challenger Josh Kraft would create a city registry of rent-controlled apartments to bypass brokers under a voluntary proposal to rein in rent increases.
A week after announcing his run to unseat incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu, Kraft released details of his housing platform, which is designed to accelerate the pace of new construction and control housing costs.
The voluntary rent stabilization proposal would offer small landlords property tax breaks in exchange for limits on rent increases.
Wu failed to gain legislative support for her 2023 rent stabilization proposal. That proposal capped rent increases at 6 to 10 percent annually, tied to the Consumer Price Index, but exempted properties completed in the past 15 years, or with fewer than seven units.
To qualify under Kraft’s proposed plan, landlords would be required to cap annual rent hikes at the Consumer Price Index plus 5 percent, at a maximum of 10 percent per year, for 10 years in exchange for a 20-percent reduction in property taxes.
The program also has guidelines for renters: only households earning 200 percent or less of the area median income would be eligible. That equates to a combined income of $261,200 for a two-person household.
A city-maintained registry of rent-controlled units would enable renters to contact landlords directly, bypassing brokers amid a growing debate over legislation to ban tenant-paid broker fees.
Kraft’s rent control proposal is part of a larger housing platform released today that also seeks to jumpstart construction of approved projects and make development more financially feasible.
It would roll back the minimum percentage of income-restricted units required in approved-but-stalled developments to 13 percent, the minimum required from 2015 until the Wu administration pushed through an increase in 2023. Real estate industry groups opposed the increase at the time, predicting it would make projects even harder to finance amid cost and interest rate increases. A press release from Kraft’s campaign called the move “a one-time reset.”
However, Kraft would change the pricing requirements for those affordable units. Under his plan, the city would require one-third of affordable units be set aside for people making 60 percent of area median income (AMI), one-third for renters at 90 percent of AMI and one-third at 120 percent of AMI. The changes, Kraft’s campaign claimed, would make it easier for developers to afford to include the units
“Having so many permitted projects continue to sit on the shelf generates no new housing, no new jobs, and no new tax revenue. My plan will change that,” Kraft said in a statement disclosing the plan’s details.
While the Wu administration’s IDP increase didn’t take effect until last year, to give developers time to adapt to construction cost hikes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous developments proposed over the last two years, however, pledged to meet the new targets.
The issue of housing production has been growing in importance for city leaders in recent years.
Wu considered, then rejected a tax break for housing developers as too costly, last year. Then, in September, she announced creation of a $100 million fund to help developers of mixed-income housing complete financing for stalled projects. The administration has said it’s also open to letting developers build affordable units off-site or pay into an affordable housing fund in lieu of including affordable units in their buildings.
