Rent control is further weakened in St. Paul

Landlords who own newer buildings in St. Paul will be free to increase rent as much as they like after a divided City Council voted to permanently exempt all buildings built in 2005 or later from the city’s rent control ordinance.

Mayor Melvin Carter said in a statement after the vote Wednesday that he hoped the exemption, which he had pushed for almost a year, would lead to more affordable apartments long-term.

“Our housing equity goals cannot be achieved without building more homes,” Carter said.

But as he celebrated, council members — even those who voted for the change — said they didn’t think that allowing limitless rent increases would outweigh such factors as inflation and tariffs that continue to push up construction costs.

Interim Ward 4 Council Member Matt Privratsky, who voted for the exemption, said he wanted the city to now focus on changing zoning and permitting processes to speed development.

Undoing rent control alone would not be enough, he said.

“I don’t expect this vote to unlock development overnight,” Privratsky said as he voted.

Council Vice President HwaJeong Kim and Members Cheniqua Johnson and Nelsie Yang opposed the change and were far more skeptical that undoing rent control would spur development.

“To this day, I have not seen the data delivered,” Yang said, adding that she did not think the policy would lead to many new apartments.

But tenants will feel the effect, Kim said. “Renters are again being marginalized,” she said.

Rent stabilization was supposed to keep tenants — now only tenants of buildings built in 2004 or earlier — from having their rent raised more than 3% a year. The policy, approved by voters in 2021, was one of the strictest in the nation. Minneapolis voters tackled the issue at the same time, directing the city to investigate rent control, but no policy has been adopted.

In St. Paul, exemptions are common, leaving tenants in older buildings to either swallow rent increases or work through a city appeal process, which can take months.

Nordby lives in a one-bedroom apartment with his two cats, just a few minutes’ walk from his job at a shop in Highland Village.

But this year, his landlord notified him that his rent would increase by 8% in 2026, which will be at least $75 more than the $940 he now pays each month. Maybe even higher, Nordby said, because he got a discounted rate last year.

A 3% increase, the maximum allowed under rent control without an exemption, would have limited the hike to about $28 a month.

“It puts me in a tough spot,” Nordby said. Rent already eats up over half his monthly income.

Worried, and thinking the rent hike was unfair, he went online and figured out how to appeal. He paid a $25 filing fee and got a hearing date.

“It’s really stressed me out,” he said.