"Jersey City Tenants Confront Landlord Over 40% Rent Hikes" (WSJ article). Any multifamily investors in rent controlled jurisdictions?
Tenants pushed back on a rent hike that was to be imposed by Equity Residential, the owner of the waterfront properties.

Organized renters petitioned to the city that the property should be subject to rent control and the city agreed. Rents cannot be increased by more than 4%.

Some New Jersey apartments had rent-control exemptions for thirty years, which means that buildings completed in the early '90s will have to observe the rent control ordinance. The property referenced in the article was built in 1992 and lost its exemption in August.

A version of the article can be read [here](https://archive.ph/9togw).
[{"id": "ixcoqmh", "text": "I\u2019m retired and didn\u2019t work in multi family anyway, but I\u2019m interested to see what the data will show happened in 2022 in a couple of years. \n\nI have friends with young professional kids in Manhattan NYC, and one was able to bail on a three-bedroom apartment and get a decent price on a two-bedroom she can afford alone instead of paying the proposed rent for her third of the three. Another bailed when his landlord jacked up the price and has been essentially high-end couch surfing among friends in other cities since he can work from home. \n\nEveryone that I know of in NYC, admittedly not that many and in a certain demographic, but more than a few, kept their apartment and continued to pay the rent as agreed during the pandemic, even though they may have lived primarily elsewhere.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ixcw65d", "text": "I've been investing in Jersey City and surrounding towns for 15+ years. Some of my properties are rent controlled. Each town is different. It kinda sucks in many ways. Primary bright side is there is some eventual upside when someone moves and you hope for vacancy when your rents are well under market.\n\nThis case I believe was lost by the landlord due to a technicality where they didn't file some form with the City. These hikes are happening here all the time. It sounds alarming to have 40% hikes but the truth is Covid had rents down by over 20%. So now recovering those drops and throw in some inflation you can get to 40%ish.", "replies": [{"id": "ixf0g22", "text": "In some of the surrounding Hudson County areas including JC, vacancies can\u2019t be brought to market rents unless capital improvements are made. Even then it\u2019s increases are based on a formula. In some cities it\u2019s hard to justify the expenses", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "ixfrltp", "text": "Serious question.........why on earth would you invest in a rent controlled building? Was it inherited or something? I honestly just don't understand the appeal of someone telling me how much I can charge for rent, when I (ME......not them) have invested multi millions to buy and operate the property. In what world would you ever want to be in that situation I will never know, but maybe I'm missing something.", "replies": [{"id": "ixhmkhd", "text": "This area, which is where I invest, has rent control on most multi family buildings so I don't have much of a choice. Sure I could go to a different location but it's where I am. \n\nYou deal with it, plain and simple.  Purchase price is based on current income, which may be substantially below market.  As I said above, it does provide upside. I should note, values have tripled in the area, if not more than that in 15 yrs so appreciation happens.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "ixgncai", "text": "That\u2019s BS. 40% hike deserves to have the landlord eat shit", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ixddpta", "text": "I know this area quite well, and have two opinions:\n\n1.\tDuring Covid, people we getting huge discounts, so this is likely a mix of \u201creturn to normal\u201d plus inflation markup. \n2.\tThe JC waterfront with city views is a premium location, and they should expect to pay a premium price for that. \n\n\nI personally would never want to own a rental in JC. Far too much risk.", "replies": [{"id": "ixgn72h", "text": "Lol 40% is dick. Hope they rip those a hole landlords up", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ixdjceg", "text": "I live in JC and the problem with rent control is there isn\u2019t enough of it to actually keep rents down overall. There are so few buildings that fall into the range that are subject to it (&gt;4 units, but not brand new build thatre exempt).\n\nLast year I went for an apt that was rent controlled and lost out to someone who made 50% more than me (rightfully so), but my annual income was 53x rent (JC standard is 36x), so his was 79x.. Doesn\u2019t help lower income people at all.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ixeu4q6", "text": "Me and my wife had a decent deal in Downtown JC due to Covid. (It was still a lot) but we were surprised to see a 37.5% increase in rent in JC which forced us to move out.\n\nI\u2019m a developer and was a LL until a few years ago, but I wish I had pushed back against that LL or at least contacted the City. We were good tenants, and we didn\u2019t even complain after having no heat in dec/Jan for 28/60 days due to janky heating unit. Lesson learned!\n\nI\u2019m torn, but there should be some limits or restrictions in place.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]