Biden calls for rent caps and penalties on corporate landlords

With housing affordability a top economic concern for voters ahead of this year’s election, President Joseph Biden urged lawmakers Tuesday to crack down on corporate landlords and increase the supply of new housing.

With the Republican Party Convention underway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Biden was scheduled to unveil his housing proposals Tuesday in Nevada — another crucial swing state — as he made his pitch to Black voters at the NAACP national convention in Las Vegas.

Biden called for Congress to rein in corporate landlords by capping annual rent increases on existing units to 5%. The cap would apply to landlords with 50 units or more and they could risk losing federal tax breaks if they don’t comply. He proposed an additional measure to make use of public land to build tens of thousands of units of affordable housing.

“Families deserve housing that’s affordable — it’s part of the American Dream. Rent is too high and buying a home is out of reach for too many working families and young Americans, after decades of failure to build enough homes,” he said in a statement.

The Biden campaign must hope it’s message will reach voters in the swing state of Georgia, which the president turned blue for the first time since 1992, and where corporate interests wield significant power over rentals and the housing market.

Their influence in one the fast growing metro areas in the United States was exposed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s investigative series “ American Dream for Rent. ”

According to D.C.-based progressive think-tank Accountable.US, six multifamily apartment companies, including three operating in Atlanta, reported $300 million in combined profits during the first financial quarter of 2024. The watchdog said that rent increases was one of the drivers behind the enormous windfall.

The group’s executive director Tony Carrk said lawmakers should adopt the president’s proposals.

“The administration’s response is common sense,” he said in a statement. “If a giant landlord swimming in profit refuses to limit their rent increases, why should they enjoy tax breaks at the expense of the very renters they’re price-gouging?”

According to the White House, the plan to cap rents could cover more than 20 million units in the United States. Any legislation would make allowances for new construction, renovation and rehabilitation so as to not curtail the supply of new housing, officials said.

Biden’s plan would allow federal agencies to identify surplus federal land that could be repurposed for affordable housing. The White House said it would work with agency officials to help with financing and infrastructure.

Last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced additional protections for residents in multifamily homes secured with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. The agency would require a 30-day written notices before rent increases and before leases expire and a 5-day grace period on fees for late rental payments.

It’s unlikely a Republican-controlled House would support the proposals and their success could depend on whether Biden secures a second term, and how his party fares in the election.

Henry Scavone, a spokesman for Donald Trump campaign in Georgia, said that the under the Biden administration voters are grappling with high interest rates and that housing affordability is at “record lows.”

“On top of sky-high prices for rent, gas, and groceries, Joe Biden has made the American Dream of homeownership unreachable for young Americans and families across the country and here in Georgia,” he said.

But the Biden campaign’s Georgia state director Porsha White said Trump’s housing agenda would make housing more expensive for citizens of the state and push home ownership out of reach.

“President Biden is taking historic action to make renting more affordable for millions of Americans and sending a clear message to corporate landlords,” White said in a statement.

National Rental Home Council, a trade group representing the single-family rental housing industry, noted that rent controls were instituted during the economic downturn of the early 1970s.

“Rent control was a bad idea then, and it remains a bad idea today,” the group said in a statement. “There is broad-based agreement among economists and housing market experts that, in fact, America’s housing crisis is one of undersupply and disinvestment. We simply aren’t building enough new homes.”

Biden’s latest proposals comes as several studies and surveys have suggested that rents and housing prices are a top economic concern among voters.

According to a report by the real estate brokerage firm Redfin published on Tuesday, the median housing payment in swing states for homebuyers nearly doubled since the 2020 presidential election, rising 92% to $2,161.

In Georgia, the median sale price in 2020 was $240,312, and the monthly median payment $1,152, according to Redfin data. In 2024, the sale price is $345,962, with a $2,336 monthly payment.

The median rent for a one-bedroom in Atlanta is $1,687 and $2,143 for a two-bedroom, according to Zillow.

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