Recently, the City of Maple Grove implemented a 1 year moratorium on any new rental properties. This will take affect on July 1 and prevents single family homes and townhouses from becoming rentals. According to reports, the city has seen a 30% increase in the number of rental licenses in the past 2 years. The city says they are concerned about both the workload of all those rentals on the city staff, but also that home ownership opportunities are being lost. They state that they will use this year to also analyze licensing procedures and fees.
Renewals of existing licenses would not be impacted by the moratorium. Rental conversions that were approved in the last few months would also not be impacted.
The city also claims that large corporations are outbidding families looking to own a home. Maybe, but I don’t think that will last forever (see reports of Zillow shutting down their homebuying business). Plus, bidding wars raise values for all the neighbors, plus for the city tax rolls. Is that bad? Is the city claiming that renters are sub-standard people? They pay their taxes, spend money in the community, contribute to school activities and such. What is the difference between them and home owners? What about every community claiming they need more affordable housing, where are those units going to come from other than rentals?
The last point above about “analyzing licensing procedures and fees”, in my opinion translates into higher fees and more regulation. The cost of an initial rental license in Maple Grove is already $325. I suspect they will be raising it to match the Minneapolis pricing of $1075. Why would they not and what push back would they get?
I hope they do not go woke and implement all the impossible “renter protection” policies that we are seeing in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Owners will simply sell out of that area if that happens, which maybe is what the city wants? Definitely will impact the other side of that discussion about affordable housing!
Here is a link to the city announcement: https://www.maplegrovemn.gov/187/Rental-property-licensing#:~:text=On%20June%206%2C%202022%2C%20the,%2C%20through%20July%201%2C%202023.
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