San Francisco has become the first city in the nation to ban the use of automated rent-setting software by landlords. The AI programs use collected landlord data to determine how high a landlord can set their rent. The programs have been blamed for contributing to high rental prices.
The motion was authored by Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin. In addition to banning use, the policy prohibits sales of the software.
Around 70% of San Francisco’s multifamily rental landlords rely on automated price-fixing programs. This “enables price collusion among large corporate landlords for the purpose of rent-gouging,” according to the city.
A spokesperson for one of the software vendors, RealPage, told KRON4 that officials aren’t focusing on the real source of San Francisco’s affordable housing problems.
“While we share the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ goal of helping renters, this ordinance will do nothing to make housing more affordable in the city, where there is a severe supply shortage of rental units that needs to be addressed,” Jennifer Bowcock said.