Illinois REALTORS® was a critical and driving force for the Rent Control Preemption Act of 1997, foreseeing that rent control would cause disinvestment in our communities and reduce the amount of available rental housing. Limiting or “capping” the amount that a rental property business can increase or income it can produce, will only disincentivize current and future property owners and will create an unviable housing environment for both inventory and the possibility of new investors and development. Rent control also would:

• REDUCE the supply of affordable rental housing. Some landlords would simply go out of business or sell and buy elsewhere.
• Make communities that impose rent control become less attractive to investors and developers, who would opt for investing in non-controlled areas or communities. This will especially hurt areas that want and need new development.
• Cause many rental property holders will choose to convert their properties to condominiums, thereby further reducing the rental housing supply.
• Create an expensive, inefficient regulatory bureaucracy; and chase good property owners out of the rental housing business.

Lastly, rent control is harmful to the quality of the rental housing stock. As increases in income to the property would be capped, maintenance and improvement costs are not limited, and are constantly going up, forcing property owners and landlords to sell their properties, decreasing the housing inventory even more. And, limit housing availability. Studies indicate that rent control tends to vastly decrease tenant mobility. Once tenants are in a rent-controlled unit, they tend to stay for many more years than tenants in non-controlled units, which in turn limits the available housing units and stiffens more homeownership.

Rent control will undoubtably take center stage at some point this spring. Fortunately, legislators know our expertise in all things housing, most importantly our adamant and unwavering opposition to rent control. Your Illinois REALTORS® is prepared with every advocacy tool and resources available to make sure that rent control is not considered in 2025.