Your REALTOR advocacy team has been hard at work and we need all members to know and engage to help defeat potentially devastating legislation.  Activists are pushing a 2026 ballot question that would repeal a law passed by Massachusetts voters and impose one of the nation’s most restrictive and damaging statewide rent mandate across ALL 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. They make a number of false claims about their proposal, so let’s share some facts you need to know.

FACT: This ballot question limits rent increases to the annual change in CPI, which averages 2.5%. That is the real rent mandate. Property owner costs are growing much faster than CPI: In 2025 alone, Massachusetts property taxes increased an average of 5.1%2. From 2018-2023, home insurance premiums in Massachusetts jumped 22.8%3.   This question also provides no pathway for property owners to recover the costs of upgrades or renovations. Can you image not having a way to recoup any escalating costs year after year?

FACT: This ballot question imposes rent mandates in all 351 cities and towns in Mass. There is no way for a community to opt-in or opt-out.

FACT: This ballot question would cut property values across Massachusetts by $300 billion over ten years – forcing cities and towns to cut services or raise taxes on homeowners. A 2026 study from the Tufts Center for State Policy Analysis found that this rent mandate ballot question would shrink the residential property tax base by anywhere from 6-9% in municipalities across the Commonwealth.

FACT: Small landlords will be devastated: The ballot question only exempts buildings of 4 units or fewer that are OWNER-OCCUPIED. Small property owners, who account for more than 60% of all rentals in Massachusetts, will not be able to invest in their properties or even keep up with rising costs. A person or family who rents out even just one or two units in a house or small building that they own but don’t live in will be subject to this law–treated the same way as if they were a Wall Street hedge fund with 10,000 apartments.

FACT: Investors and developers are already pulling out of Massachusetts. Governor Maura Healey opposes this ballot question explicitly because it is ALREADY leading to less housing production11 in the state. It’s happened here in Cambridge before and other states have seen the same result over and over again.

FACT: This does not create or provide affordable housing! This ballot question will force property owners to raise rents to the maximum every year, slow the creation of new housing, reduce maintenance, and limit turnover – all of which will lead to fewer rental options, lower quality, and rents that always increase. Under this measure, vacant units remain under the rent mandate law, meaning that property owners can never reset to market, forcing them to raise rents to the maximum allowed every year just to pay their bills and protect the value of their property.

Protect your own property rights and that of your clients. Checkout https://HousingForMass.com/ for details, all sources cited above and to join the coalition to combat this bill.  This has the most restrictive statewide policy in the United States and needs to be stopped to protect our housing stability in Berkshire County.