Supporting a rent fixing ban in Berkeley
Americans are increasingly rent-burdened, spending over 30% of their income on housing alone. Landlords across the country are trying to keep it that way, and rent fixing—the act of colluding to set rent prices artificially high—is a key piece to that puzzle.
Rent fixing isn’t new. But now, landlords don’t have to make backroom agreements to collude on increasing rent prices—they can rely on algorithms to do and obscure the dirty work for them.
For example, landlords nationwide use RealPage, a property management software company, to “maximize” what they charge for rent. RealPage uses a combination of public and private data to do this.
With these rent-setting tools, landlords in one area can all use the same software and share (what is normally) private data on pricing and occupancy rates, allowing them to collude indirectly on rents.
San Francisco banned software that potentially enables landlords to rent fix in July of last year. Is it now Berkeley’s turn? We hope so!
That’s why we signed this letter supporting a ban on rental price fixing. Read on for the full letter.
Do you suspect that you’ve been the victim of rent-fixing software? Share your story with one of our organizers to help lawmakers and the public understand what change needs to happen—in the Bay and beyond.
