St. Paul walks back rent control
New — and new-ish — rental properties in St. Paul will no longer be subject to the city's 3% cap on yearly rent increases.
The St. Paul City Council, at the behest of Mayor Melvin Carter, voted 4-3 Wednesday to permanently exempt new construction and rentals built after 2004 from the rent control ordinance, which voters approved by ballot measure in 2021.
While increased interest rates and slower growth in rents reduced homebuilding across the country in recent years, local developers have pointed the finger at St. Paul's rent control ordinance as a major factor in their reluctance to build in the city.
Since the council first implemented the ordinance in 2022, construction has dropped off a cliff in the city; In 2024, 80% fewer housing units were built in St. Paul compared to the previous three-year average, according to a MinnPost analysis. (In Minneapolis, voters gave the city council power to enact rent control in 2021, but the council has not passed a rent control ordinance. Minneapolis had an even steeper falloff in construction in 2024 than St. Paul.)
St. Paul's rollback of the ordinance is a bad sign for rent control advocates in Minneapolis, who have pushed the council to implement rent stabilization in recent years.
Prior to Wednesday's vote, the St. Paul City Council weakened the rent control ordinance in other ways: In 2022, the council permanently exempted affordable housing developments; gave new construction a 20-year exemption, and instituted 'vacancy decontrol,' which allows landlords to raise rents by more than 3% when a tenant moves out.
Landlords could also request permission from the city to raise rents by more than 3% if their expenses rose significantly; St. Paul approved the vast majority of those requests.
Minnesota is one of the only Midwestern states without a statewide ban on local rent control ordinances.
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