Colorado House Bill HB 1017 Opens The Door to Rent Control Rent control has failed everywhere that it’s been tried. Setting price controls on rent will only reduce the supply of private investors for housing. If you reduce the supply, you reduce the demand. If you reduce the demand you reduce the value of all the property in Colorado. Current state law prohibits counties and municipalities from enacting any ordinance that would control rent on private residential property. The law was enacted in 1981 because of statewide concern that if rent controls could be imposed on properties, investment in rental housing in Colorado would significantly decrease. If you reduce the value and the demand, there will be an increase in foreclosures. Especially in these troubled economic times, you don’t want to do anything that would negatively affect the Colorado housing market. If you reduce the value, there will be a decrease in the amount of building in Colorado. If you reduce the value of real estate, our schools and neighborhoods will suffer more and over a longer period of time because revenue from property taxes will decrease further. “HB 1017 gives government entities and municipalities the upper hand, an unlevel playing field,” said Nancy Burke, vice president of government affairs for the Colorado Apartment Association. “This bill adversely affects private property rights because if this bill passes, rent controls will be imposed by local governments.” Sunny Banka, spokeswoman for the Colorado Association of Realtors, echoed similar concerns. “We are seeing more and more government entities — in the mountains in particular — imposing requirements on developers and owners to agree to rent control or affordable housing requirements as a condition of the developer getting their property approved for a particular use,” said Banka. This bill will ultimately have the opposite effect from what its sponsor’s intend. If the door to rent control is opened, rental investors will stop investing in Colorado, which will lead to a shortage of rental units, which, over time, will lead to higher rents. The bottom line is that HB 10-1017 is a bad bill that negatively affects the housing market and housing prices.