WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden Administration has planned an announcement to impose a limit on annual rent hikes at properties that have received support from the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, according to a senior administration official. The new regulation would cap annual rent increases for these properties at ten percent. The Mortgage Banking Association (MBA) criticized the policy in a prepared statement on March 29.
“Rent control has consistently proven to be a failed policy that discourages new construction, distorts market pricing, and leads to a degradation of the quality of rental housing — the exact opposite of what is currently needed in markets throughout the country,” argued Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of MBA. “Now is not the time to repeat a policy widely recognized as a failure at the local, national, and global level by nearly every economist.”
Broeksmit added that increasing the supply of affordable rental housing, not rent control, is the key to solving the nation’s affordable housing crisis. He stated that MBA would continue to urge the administration and Congress to improve multifamily lending programs.