As if renting in the Bay Area wasn’t costly enough for a lot of people, some San Francisco landlords were using artificial intelligence software to set rates even higher.
San Francisco supervisors took swift action banning some AI rental software the first time they discussed it.
The software in question is RealPage and Yardi. They compile landlord data to determine how high they can set a unit’s rent, or perhaps not rent it at all.
According to the information in the supervisors had to consider, the use of the software increased rent, vacancy and even eviction rates, and the companies have faced lawsuits in other communities across the country.
While RealPage claims not enough landlords use the software in San Francisco to contribute to alleged collusion, Supervisor Aaron Peskin disagrees.
“Banning algorithmic price gouging is pro-housing policy,” Peskin said at a recent board meeting. “Let’s build housing for renters, not for real estate investors.”
Earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Tennessee, two large companies that operate multifamily residential properties settled claims that they artificially inflated rental prices using RealPage software, according to a report from Reuters.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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