Rent Control Ballot Initiative Filed for Attorney General's Consideration
NAIOP’s 2025 Advocacy Alerts are generously sponsored by Issues Management Group and Pierce Atwood, LLP.
On August 6, a citizen's petition called An Initiative Petition to Protect Tenants by Limiting Rent Increases was filed with the Attorney General's Office seeking inclusion on the 2026 General Election Ballot.
The language, if enacted, would apply statewide and limit annual rent increases to a set cost-of-living adjustment based on the Consumer Price Index, with a maximum cap of 5%, regardless of a change in tenancy during the relevant 12-month period. For context, the cost-of-living increase last year was 2.9%, which would have been the maximum allowable rent increase in 2025 if the proposed measure had been in place. In 2022, the cost-of-living increase was 8%, but the measure would have restricted the maximum rent boost to 5%. Owner-occupied buildings with fewer than five units would be exempt, as would new construction for the first ten years of the building’s existence.
The Attorney General's Office will now evaluate the language and determine if the petition meets the state's constitutional requirements and can be certified. Most certification announcements are made the the first Wednesday in September (September 3). If certified, the language will then be filed with the Secretary of State's Office, and petitioners will be required to collect 74,574 signatures for their petition and file all collected signatures for certification 14 days before the first Wednesday in December (December 3). No more than one-quarter of the certified signatures may come from any one county.
If enough signatures are collected, the measure is then sent to the Legislature in January 2026. The Legislature can pass the measure, propose a substitute, or take no action. If the Legislature does not pass the measure as filed before the first Wednesday in May, the petitioner must then collect 12,429 more signatures and file them with local election officials for certification 14 days before the first Wednesday in July and with the Secretary of State by the first Wednesday in July. If the ballot language makes it through these steps, the measure will then be placed on the ballot for the 2026 general election.
Rent control will not address Massachusetts' underlying housing challenges – as housing development has not kept up with population or job growth. There is a broad consensus among economists that rent control policies reduce overall housing supply by suppressing new construction, forcing units out of the rental market entirely, and reducing housing quality.
Enacting rent control or rent stabilization policies will only exacerbate these challenges and negatively impact economic activity and jobs by reducing investment in housing – thereby reducing employment in the skilled construction trades and other professional services.
NAIOP is strongly opposed to this ballot language. We are engaged with a broad group of experts and interested parties and will keep members updated as this situation evolves.
The NAIOP Advocacy Team is working on numerous initiatives at the state and local level. If you have questions regarding these, or other topics, please feel free to reach out to NAIOP's CEO Tamara Small or NAIOP's Vice President of Policy and Public Affairs, Anastasia Daou.