The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation today that will preserve rental housing by stopping condo conversions.
Legislation originally proposed by Scott Wiener and Mark Farrell to allow landlords to turn rentals into Tenancies in Common (TICs) to bypass the city’s annual cap on condo conversions, was turned from a major threat to S.F. tenants, into legislation which will protect tenants by putting into place anti-displacement safeguards to help curb real estate speculators and preserve rent controlled housing. Under amendments crafted by Sups. David Chiu, Jane Kim & Norman Yee, all condo conversions will be stopped for at least the next decade and, if and when they resume, conversions will no longer be allowed for 5+ unit buildings. In addition, future conversions will need a higher level of owner-occupancy, which will prevent condo conversions from being used solely for rent control repeal. There will be a one time, expedited condo conversion process for existing TICs over the next few years, to allow TIC owners to obtain more favorable financing.
In depth article on this here.
