PROTECT YOUR HOME & COMMUNITY
Vote NO on
Rent Control
GET THE FACTS
Rent Control Will Worsen the Housing Crisis
A proposed 2026 ballot question would overturn a law passed by Massachusetts voters and impose the nation’s most restrictive and damaging rent control agenda across ALL 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth.
GET THE FACTS
What the Ballot Question Does
This ballot question is not a stop-gap stabilization to get us through the housing crisis; it is control of the private rental market by the state government— forever. It creates a system that is not based on need, but on connections. And its impact will not be limited to renters and property owners: it will impact everyone in Massachusetts.
A one-size-fits-all mandate.
- Communities are not allowed to opt out of this measure, even if local residents vote against it. Rent control would be automatically imposed in all 351 Massachusetts communities, from Cape Cod to Boston to the Berkshires, regardless of individual community needs or wants.
- When rent control was banned in 1994, only THREE of 351 communities in Massachusetts had rent control policies in place.
- In the 2025-2026 legislative session, less than FIVE of 351 communities have even asked for rent control.
The most restrictive statewide policy in the United States.
- The ballot question states that annual rent increases “shall not exceed the annual increase in Consumer Price Index or 5%, whichever is lower…”
- For context:
- The average CPI increase from 2005-2024 was just 2.58%.
- In 2024, CPI growth was just 2.9%
- Meanwhile, in 2024 alone, Massachusetts property taxes increased an average of 5.1%.
- From 2018-2023, home insurance premiums in Massachusetts jumped 22.8%.
- Only three other states in the U.S. have statewide rent control, and all allow higher levels of rent growth:
- Oregon’s 2019 statewide law limits rent increases to CPI PLUS 7%
- California’s 2020 statewide law limits rent increases to CPI PLUS 5%
- Washington’s 2025 statewide law limits rent increases to CPI PLUS 7%
A devastating blow to housing creation and housing quality.
- History and data have proven again and again that housing creation virtually disappears in communities with rent control.
- Under the 1970 rent control measure in Cambridge, Massachusetts, construction was non-existent. Upon its repeal in 1994, improvements and new construction increased 20%.
- Saint Paul, Minnesota, saw a 79% decrease in new apartment construction permits after adopting rent control in 2022.
- Montgomery County, Maryland, saw new multifamily permits decrease from 2,093 to only 54 between 2024 and 2025 after adopting rent control.
- Existing units are frequently taken off the market or fall into a state of disrepair as cost increases, including property taxes and necessary upgrades, outpace rental rate increases.
An inequitable proposal that will hurt small property owners.
- Rents covered under this proposal NEVER reset to market rates.
- And by the time you’re reading this, baseline rents have likely already been set. That’s because the ballot question establishes baseline rents as of January 31, 2026 – NOT 2027 – 10 months before voters will go to the polls.
- For many property owners on the September 1 lease cycle, including an estimated 60-70% of units in Boston, this effectively means that baseline rents have already been established.
- Unlike the prior Massachusetts law, under this measure, vacant units remain under the rent control law— meaning that property owners who have kept rents low for older or long-term tenants will never be able to reset those units to market rents if and when they become vacant.
- This provision will be fatal for small property owners who have tried to do the right thing for their tenants, particularly the elderly.
A boon to short-term rentals and a nightmare for seasonal communities.
- The ballot question exempts short-term rentals of 13 days or less. But any property rented out for 14 days or more (even once!) could be covered by rent control forever, with the burden falling on the property owner to understand the law or risk significant legal fees and penalties.
- In every community— but particularly seasonal communities in the Berkshires, on Cape Cod, Nantucket, or Martha’s Vineyard— this exemption could incentivize more property owners to shift from monthly, seasonal, or longer-term rentals to short-term platforms, exacerbating the housing crisis in those regions.