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After getting cut out of the Legislature’s last major housing bill, the so-called Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act found new life in the House’s policy-dense $561 million economic development bill alongside housing production-focused measures.
On Wednesday night, representatives quietly adopted a mega-amendment that included a local option version of the policy, which is often referred to as tenant right of first refusal and known by the acronym TOPA. It requires multi-family property owners to notify their tenant and city or town when they decide to sell the property. Then, tenants would have the right to make the first offer to buy the property.
The section joins others geared towards building new housing that advocacy groups had pushed all year. One would would allow religious organizations to build mixed-income multifamily housing on land they own, and the other would curb towns’ ability to turn “site plan reviews” for buildings otherwise legal under a property’s zoning into a de facto approvals process.
The TOPA idea has had a rocky past on Beacon Hill. In 2021, then-Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the policy from an economic development bill; and in 2024, the House added TOPA provisions to its version of a major housing legislation, but the policy didn’t make its way into the final version of the bill.
Opponents to the measure include landlords, developers and property owners who say it could create barriers for transactions and deter housing investors.
“A tenant right of first refusal (ROFR) would cause serious delays and impediments to the normal conveyancing process in the Commonwealth. This works against efforts to address the housing crisis by eliminating the ability to finance, develop and operate rental housing, which reduces available rental housing supply,” the Greater Boston Real Estate Board said in a November letter opposing several bills, including those dealing with the right of first refusal (S.998 / H.1544), to the Committee on Housing.
Supporters say the policy helps sustain affordable housing, prevents resident displacement and provides an avenue to home ownership for renters, which creates more opportunities to build wealth.
“TOPA is an essential component to fighting the resident displacement and speculative purchases brought on by the pandemic-spurred housing market turmoil by preserving naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH),” Cassie White, director of policy and community organizing, said in a November letter to the Housing Committee in support of bills establishing the right of first refusal. “This legislation will not only help cities and towns to face the housing crisis, but prevent further housing loss by vulnerable tenants.”
Both bills mentioned in the letters are sitting in front of their respective chamber’s Committee on Ways and Means. The House’s economic development bill now heads for the Senate and no other major housing legislation has emerged this session as residents are facing soaring home prices. Lawmakers have until July 31 to either pass major legislation or get bills into a six-person conference committee.
