In the debates on housing development, industry-aligned politicians gloss over one key fact: new housing built in San Francisco will not be covered by San Francisco’s rent control law. Our city’s rent laws are stuck in 1979, protecting investor profits instead of the people who actually live here.
The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act – a state law written by the real estate industry – froze San Francisco’s rent control eligibility at this 45-year-old date, meaning the tens of thousands of renters in new buildings won’t have the protections from rent hikes that tenants in older buildings have. Over 75,000 units have been built after 1979 in San Francisco, and they are exempt from SF rent control, as are any further units that are built.
Developers will only build luxury units when the profit margins meet the expectation of their investors. The units will be out of reach for most San Franciscans. This creates an unaffordable city where rents are the highest in the country, working class people, especially communities of color, are pushed out, and everyday people are rent burdened and a paycheck away from eviction.
The ban on stronger rent control protections is the result of lobbying by real estate interests who put millions of dollars behind landlord-friendly politicians. Those politicians refuse to update rent control laws to meet today’s reality and instead pretend the private market will fix everything.
Tenant advocates have long prioritized repealing the state Costa Hawkins law, or at least amending it so cities like San Francisco can expand their rent control laws to cover all units. The industry has spent over $100 million to stop legislation and ballot measures to repeal Costa Hawkins, but advocates have vowed to keep pushing. In 2024, San Francisco passed legislation to automatically expand rent control to newer units if and when Costa Hawkins is repealed.
The real estate industry tries to pivot any discussion of affordability to a discussion of developing new market rate housing. What they don’t want to talk about is how the government could simply intervene to regulate prices, and that the only thing blocking that is the power of the real estate industry lobby. Change that, and rents could be lowered immediately.
