News of large rent increases are coming in from all over the state of Florida. Orlando, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa, to name a few. Rents in Florida are up 29% year over year.
The causes are obvious. I’ve been warning of this for more than a year. The eviction moratorium was killing landlords. Many landlords are leaving the business, while tons of northerners are moving to Florida in a bid to escape the increasingly socialist policies up north. This is increasing home prices, so many rentals are now being sold. Taxes and insurance rates are climbing.
On top of that, there is inflation to deal with. Florida minimum wage just increased 17 percent over the 2020 rate. The increased costs, increased risk, increased demand, and falling supply has combined with record inflation to put a lot of upward pressure on rental prices.
Tampa has decided that they are going to do an end run: a voter referendum declaring a housing emergency and enacting rent control. This will be the Democrat issue for the 2022 election. Expect a State constitutional amendment on the ballot for rent control.
If rent control is enacted, there are steps I can take: Each year, I will raise rents by the highest permitted under the new law. On top of that:
- I will no longer provide lawn service as a part of rent. That will shift $900 a year of expense to the tenant.
- I will no longer provide a free washer and dryer. I will recommend a company that will rent the tenant one at an additional cost, if they don’t have one. That company will be owned by me. The going rate for that is $144 a month.
- I currently pressure wash the outside of the property twice a year. I can push that off to the tenant, and make it their responsibility as a part of cleaning.
There are many ways that I can maintain profitability. Just taking the three steps above will have the effect of increasing the cost of renting by 15 percent without increasing the rent itself.
Landlords will have to be creative.
5 Comments
why · December 29, 2021 at 10:01 am
and the “renting public” will get a lesson in economics they should have received in high school.
There is no such thing as “free” – someone has to pay for it. Increase costs to the “evil landowners” (you could insert any business name here) and the final cost WILL be passed through to the end-consumer, whether it be in public price increase or through increased fees or through decreased services.
RL · December 29, 2021 at 10:16 am
Rent control will backfire on the city council as it has historically done in other locales. And “temporary” – yeah, right.
Rents up almost 30% yoy simply following the exact same price appreciation in your area. Nothing extraordinary about that. And, yes, as a landlord you do need to be compensated for the now much higher risk of .gov fuckery (Rona rent moratoriums).
Might as well be proactive and raise your rent accordingly, now. At least then you’ll be working from a higher baseline if rent controls are enacted.
ChuckInBama · December 29, 2021 at 11:15 am
Maybe Tampa should purchase all those rentals at current market value and provide free housing in THEIR properties. Let the politicians get a lesson in economics. Good and hard.
Jonathan · December 29, 2021 at 11:58 am
And then a game of whack a mole will commence, with legislation following each new fee, leading to yet another ridiculous set of business rules.
AC47spooky · December 29, 2021 at 7:47 pm
I’ll say my property taxes have held steady – small increase this coming year. But homeowners insurance is going up a lot. Of course, let’s not forget that the insurance corporations are the wealthiest on earth.
Comments are closed.