Oakland discusses change Rent Control Laws for small multifamily

Oakland discusses change Rent Control Laws for small multifamily

Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2018 · 19 posts · 27 votes

While chatting with a friend today they brought my attention to discussions currently happening in the Oakland City Council that would be of interest to all of us with small multi-family properties in Oakland.  Oakland has strict rent control laws, like San Francisco, Berkeley, and many other cities, however there is an exemption for both duplexes and triplexes when the owner lives there as their primary residence.  The exemption is for protecting small multi-family homeowner's from the woes of a bad tenant and creates flexibility in finding suitable tenants, who thus, are living in close proximity to the owner. The new measure would eliminate this exemption and extend regular rent control laws to all multi-family properties. 

Article can be found here

https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/...

The City Council Minutes from the meeting can typically be found here, though for this particular meeting, on the 17th, have not been made available yet

https://oakland.legistar.com/calendar.aspx

I wanted to help bring some attention to this as house-hacking is such a huge conversation here on BP and was the only way I found that I could feasibly invest here in the Bay Area.  The exemption does not currently apply to 4-plexes either, and I really doubt that that's going to change...  The new measure is aimed for the November ballot and would certainly be worth paying attention to as it develops.

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  • Real Estate Broker · San Francisco Bay Area, CA · Member since 2015 · 116 posts · 76 votes
    8y

    @Kell Caro thanks for this valuable information - will be interesting to keep track if the measure passes. How is this news generally being received amongst the local community/your neighbors?

  • Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2018 · 19 posts · 27 votes
    8y
    @Houston Garcia Yeah it should be interesting. It’s really about which side you fall on.. Almost every neighbor who I’ve met happened to be long time homeowners in the neighborhood and have been encouraging. I talk about doing renovations and they don’t weigh heavily on what that could mean for a tenant. And on the other side I definitely think there are valid concerns around the impacts that an increasingly in demand market can create for those unprepared to compete with the demand. Just as an example, where rents adjust with the market, tenants experience the rise incrementally and are better acclimated with the market. Instead however, with rent control, come time to move tenants have to face a huge disparity in price all at once, which isn’t right. So to be honest I’m not sure... I’m on the side to think that rent control laws tend to compound issues, so I certainly wouldn’t like to see them expanded.
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