Press Releases
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Former NEC Dep. Dir. Bharat Ramamurti, Watchdog Group Spotlight Corporate Landlord Tactics Driving Up Rent & The Solutions
WASHINGTON, DC – On a virtual press briefing today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) joined former Biden administration Deputy Director for the National Economic Council Bharat Ramamurti, and government watchdog group Accountable.US to discuss profiteering and tactics of large corporate landlords, including alleged illegal collusion on rental pricing using the algorithmic software RealPage. Participants detailed what can be done about the housing affordability crisis at the state and federal level including: state-level investigations into RealPage-linked corporate landlords; passing Senator Warren’s newly introduced American Housing and Economic Mobility Act; passing the Sen. Klobuchar-sponsored Housing Acquisitions Review and Transparency (HART) Act; and passing the Biden-Harris administration’s 5% rent cap proposal.
The only way to dig our country out of this housing crisis is to build more housing so everyone has a place to call home,” said Senator Warren. “My bill will make bold investments in our country’s housing and encourage local innovation to lower housing costs even more — and it’s all paid for by getting America’s wealthiest families to chip in.”
"While the main long-term solution to rising rents is more affordable housing supply, short term steps to prevent collusion and price gouging by large landlords would offer relief to renters in many markets across the country,” said Bharat Ramamurti, Former Biden administration Deputy Director for the National Economic Council.
On the call, Accountable.US reviewed its recent analysis finding the six largest publicly traded apartment companies brought in nearly $300 million combined in increased profits in Q1 2024, many due to rent increases. Notably, all six landlords named in the report have faced lawsuits related to their use of troubled property management software company, RealPage.
The cost of housing is one of the driving inflationary pressures. And our research shows a major reason why prices continue to be too high: big corporate landlords are gouging tenants for more profits,” said Caroline Ciccone, President, Accountable.US. “Many of the same CEOs that claimed they had no choice but to hike rent on everyday Americans have turned around and bragged to shareholders about massive profits increases. Adding insult to injury, many of these companies have had so much money left over that they’ve rewarded a small group of wealthy investors with new giveaways like stock buybacks.”
Earlier this month, Accountable.US sent letters to state attorneys general in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York urging their offices to investigate whether major rental companies that have been sued in Washington D.C. for alleged illegal rent-price fixing may be engaging in the same behavior in thei
Where there is smoke there is fire and any big property company that has used RealPage should face a probe,” said Accountable.US’ Liz Zelnick. “No renter in America should be price gouged under a potentially illegal rent fixing scheme. The question we posed to State Attorneys General is simple: If these corporate landlords were allegedly willing to engage in price fixing in the nation’s capital surrounded by federal regulators, why wouldn’t they do the same in their states? It would be no surprise to us if the same landlords that needlessly inflated housing costs despite increased profits were proven to be involved in a price-fixing scheme.”
