Landlords of rent-controlled housing in San Francisco can currently “bank” rent increases for a later date without any limit, causing a more drastic increase when they finally decide to add it.
Banking rent increases means a landlord can go, say, five years without raising someone’s rent by 3%, but then in five years can decide that the tenant now owes 15% more per month — as if the 3% increase had indeed been applied every year.
But new legislation introduced this week at the county Board of Supervisors meeting would limit that amount to a 10% total annual increase, according to the author of the ordinance, Supervisor Danny Sauter.
That number includes costs that are allowed to be passed onto tenants for eligible repair or renovation work, known as “capital improvement passthroughs.”
The ordinance was introduced along with a companion piece of legislation offered by Supervisor Matt Dorsey that would require landlords of rent-controlled properties — which are most apartment units and multifamily homes built before June 1979 — to inform tenants about rent increase limits and other rights.
Both ordinances were introduced at the Board of Supervisors’ regular meeting Tuesday, about a week after Mayor Daniel Lurie declared the city was facing a “rent emergency” amid skyrocketing prices fueled by investments in artificial intelligence companies headquartered in the city that have brought new money and speculation to the city’s real estate market.
Average rent prices have risen by about 25% compared to summer 2025, a faster increase than any other city in the nation, according to the Mayor’s Office.
After previewing the ordinances last week along with a package of others designed to mitigate the impacts on tenants, Lurie told the Board on Tuesday during his monthly remarks at the Board’s regular meeting that both pieces of legislation would help staunch the pressure facing renters.
Lurie also supported an ordinance introduced in early September by Supervisor Jackie Fielder that will limit evictions in cases where a tenant owes less than one month’s back rent.
Impact on long-term tenants
Sauter said the ability for landlords to essentially “bank” their rent increases just to hit tenants with the accrued amount later leaves renters with unpredictable and potentially prohibitive cost-of-living increases.
“This change is one of the most immediate tools we have as a city to make housing more stable for long-term tenants,” Sauter told colleagues during the meeting.
He said older tenants are most impacted, as years of banked increases can lead to potentially “devastating” increases when they hit all at once.
The ordinance is co-sponsored by Supervisors Bilal Mahmood and Connie Chan, according to Sauter.
The city’s rent ordinance limits annual rent increases by an amount established by the city’s Rent Control Board. This year, the amount was 1.7%.
Most apartment units and multifamily homes that were built prior to 1979 are covered by the city’s ordinance. Others are covered by a state law authored by now City Attorney David Chiu in 2019, Assembly Bill 1482, known as the California Tenant Protection Act.
That law covers most apartment buildings or multifamily homes that are at least 15 years old and allows for a maximum 10% increase annually.
Landlords will also have to file notice with the Rent Control Board that they have banked any given year’s rent increase. They can still accrue up to 10% for any given year and can apply any rent increases that they forgo until Sauter’s ordinance expires at the end of 2029.
Similarly, AB 1482 will expire at the end of 2030, leaving uncertainty about how steep prices could increase at once if the legislation — if Sauter’s ordinance passes — expires.
Dorsey’s ordinance will also increase the Rent Control Board’s ability to enforce the state’s rent control law if it receives eligible complaints.