The National Apartment Association (NAA), National Multifamily Housing Council, and Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released the following statement in response to today’s announcement from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on new requirements for borrowers using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage products and in response to remarks made last night from President Biden on the responsibility of rent caps:

“We appreciate FHFA’s ongoing, collaborative approach with our members and other industry stakeholders on ways to increase affordable rental housing supply and to adopt common sense practices that better serve tenants. Long-term, the only real way to sustainably lower housing costs and create more housing security for renters is to increase housing supply as the Biden Administration Housing Supply Action Plan correctly points out.

“The actions detailed in today’s announcement are generally consistent with practices employed by quality, professionally managed housing providers and we will work diligently with FHFA, the GSEs and our members to make sure these new initiatives are implemented as efficiently as possible.

“Going forward, we urge FHFA to continue to gather information about the impacts of all potential policy proposals and changes, and we are committed to working with them to tackle the affordability crisis.”

Regarding President Biden’s remarks last night on the possibility of rent caps, in addition to just a few weeks ago during his debate with former President Trump, the Housing Solutions Coalition released the below statement:

“Decades of academic research from across the United States and around the world clearly show that rent caps – more commonly known as rent control – reduce the supply of available housing and fail to target those renters who need help the most while simultaneously harming other residents and the communities they reside in. Despite President Biden’s mention of rent caps during the debate, he and his policy experts know that the real reason so many Americans struggle with housing costs is because we need to build more housing. There is no debate. Rent caps hurt renters and communities.”