Massachusetts could get statewide rent control next year, 30 years after voters banned the practice.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell certified a record 40 proposed laws and constitutional amendments as legal to pitch via the statewide ballot. Her move doesn’t reflect her personal policy positions or other endorsements, merely whether the questions meet the state’s constitutional requirements for ballot questions.
The rent control ballot question is being pushed by the Homes for All Coalition, a group of tenant advocates.
“Rent control is a flawed, harmful policy that stunts housing creation and increases overall housing costs: A horrifying thought given the hundreds of thousands of units our state must build to overcome the housing crisis,” Greater Boston Real Estate Board CEO Greg Vasil said in a statement.
The measure would cap annual rent increases for apartments at the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index or 5 percent, whichever is lower. For example, the Boston-area Consumer Price Index rose 3.2 percent for the 12-month period ending July 31, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The proposal would exempt owner-occupied buildings with four units or less, public housing units, short-term rentals, nonprofit-owned apartments, student and religious housing, and units younger than 10 years old.
Rent control was banned statewide by ballot question in 1994, and scholars and real estate groups say if passed the law would likely result in most apartment owners being reluctant to spend any significant amount of money on upkeep.
And despite the exemption for new construction, real estate groups have warned in the past that such a law could scare away out-of-state developers and investors for many years.
Some Boston developers, put off by the area’s high costs and by policies in place in the city of Boston itself, moved to grow their investment and development presences in New Hampshire in the last five years.
But while recent polling suggests the concept of rent control is generally popular among Massachusetts voters, the Homes for All Coalition faces two big hurdles to actually get their proposal on the 2026 ballot.
First, the group must collect 74,574 valid signatures from registered voters over the next three months. If the Legislature doesn’t vote to put their measure on the ballot before May 6, 2026, Homes for All must scrounge up an additional 12,429 by July 1, 2026 to stay on the ballot.
Massachusetts state legislators have historically been hostile to rent control proposals.
