House of Representatives leaders didn’t just add several billion dollars of additional housing funding to Gov. Maura Healey’s big bonding-and-policy bill earlier this month. They also added a measure anathema to real estate trade groups.
Real estate groups say they will appeal Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s certification of a rent control ballot question.
Instead of extending outdated policies, as Banker & Tradesman called for in a recent editorial, we should increase housing production and create needs-based rental aid programs, where property owners receive the funds directly.
Boston’s rent control proposal isn’t just about imposing a rental cap. It’s a government takeover of the private housing industry – something sure to drive investment far away from Massachusetts.
Sadly, the proponents of rent control insist upon unearthing a long-buried corpse, only to put lipstick on it in the name of “innovation.”
A statewide ballot initiative spearheaded by Cambridge landlords did what years of local efforts couldn’t on Election Day in 1994: End decades of rent control in Boston, Cambridge and Brookline.
Boston’s ramp-up in apartment inspections to clear out a pandemic-era backlog is not sitting well with the always-vocal Small Property Owners Association.
The Small Property Owners Association disputes the TOPA Coalition’s duplicitous defense of TOPA as a “good housing policy” in its June 19 column in Banker & Tradesman.
Misinformation has been spreading about what the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act would do. Here are the facts, and the many places it’s been refined with real estate industry feedback.
After Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the state legislature’s previous attempt last year to guarantee apartment tenants the right to purchase the building they’re living in, senators and representatives are back with a revised bill they say addresses some industry concerns.
Massachusetts is again considering another eviction moratorium, much to the frustration of real estate industry groups. While the bill is well-intentioned and some aspects could fix key problems, it will send the wrong message to tenants and poison its own efforts to address a building crisis.
Real estate industry leaders and landlords lined up in opposition to a bill on Beacon Hill that would revive the state eviction moratorium, arguing that the hundreds of millions of dollars that remain available in rental aid prevent any need for the temporary ban.
