When Mayor Muriel Bowser enacted an emergency citywide eviction moratorium and rent freeze during the pandemic, she strengthened what were some of the country’s strongest renter protections, the centerpiece of which is the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which lets renters of a building organize to intervene when a landlord wants to sell the property.
The TOPA process was paused until August, and the yearlong freeze depressed the investment market for multifamily buildings in the District as its neighbors in Maryland and Virginia saw a dramatic uptick in activity, new data provided to Bisnow shows.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at a groundbreaking event on H Street in 2016.
According to Newmark research, $782M worth of multifamily properties changed hands last year in Washington, D.C., roughly half of the volume in 2019, when there were more than $1.5B in multifamily sales.
“The regulations have, in effect, frozen the market,” said Peter Bonnell, principal at major D.C. apartment operator UIP Cos.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Jacob Wallace over at Bis Now
