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Boston Mayor Marty Walsh delivers his 2020 State of the City speech on Jan. 7, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Office of Mayor Marty Walsh.
Hot on the heels of a New York City law to ban broker fees in apartment rentals, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says he may want to do the same thing.
Walsh announced a working group to study broker fees and how they impact renters Thursday night. Members of the group will be named by the end of the month and will “include a wide range of stakeholders,” an announcement from his office reads.
“We need to utilize every tool we have to ensure we have affordable housing choices for every Boston resident,” Walsh said on Twitter.
The announcement from Walsh’s office explicitly named New York City as an inspiration for the move.
“The housing crisis in our city requires a comprehensive, and multi-pronged approach to achieve our goal of creating and preserving new housing, while also ensuring that our housing is accessible to all residents,” Walsh said in a separate statement released by his office. “I am proud to pull together this working group to move us forward in determining how broker fees are impacting our renters and our housing market in Boston. This is another tool we are putting forward to tackle the underlying challenges of housing affordability in Boston.”
Broker fees for apartments in and around Boston often involve paying the equivalent of a month’s rent upon the signing of a lease, although the specific number may vary from agent to agent. Some new buildings that employ their own leasing agents do not charge broker fees. Any move by Boston to ban broker fees may require a home rule petition and state approval.
