Much-debated Montgomery County Council bills on permanent rent regulation — a subject against which local real estate interests have long inveighed — are up for a key committee vote, with some kind of compromise possibly emerging for the full council’s vote in coming weeks.
The council enacted rent stabilization during the pandemic, temporarily capping how much landlords can increase rents year over year. But in March two competing proposals emerged, aimed at setting such a policy in “perpetuity,” Council member Andrew Friedson, D-District 1, said at a June 15 meeting of the council’s three-person planning, housing and parks committee, which he chairs. That committee is scheduled to give the bills final consideration on Monday, with a merging of the two alternatives anticipated.
Many developers and landlords have expressed concerns about both pieces of legislation — even the one with the higher limit on allowable rent increases. They’ve argued that, among other things, constraining their ability to increase rent revenues could jeopardize their ability to secure interest-only financing, which some say is critical for real estate deals. They’re almost certainly not going to love whatever negotiated version might come out of committee. The legislation will then head to the full council for debate and a final vote likely in July.
