FBI durchsucht Büros von Großvermietern und intensiviert strafrechtliche Ermittlungen zu Vorwürfen der Mietpreisabsprachen zwischen Vermietern und dem Softwareanbieter RealPage

Summary:

The FBI conducted an unannounced raid on the Atlanta headquarters of Cortland Management, a major corporate landlord, as part of a criminal antitrust investigation by the Department of Justice into allegations of a nationwide conspiracy to artificially inflate apartment rents.

The probe centers around RealPage, a software firm accused of helping orchestrate price-fixing among large landlords through its rental pricing system used by 70% of multifamily buildings nationwide.
RealPage’s system allegedly encourages landlords to adopt its pricing recommendations, which they follow 80-90% of the time, reducing rental supply and driving up prices in a coordinated manner.

The impact is evident in Atlanta, where software pricing affects 81% of units and rents surged 80% since 2016 despite rising vacancies. RealPage’s acquisition of its main rival in 2017 gave it unprecedented control over rental pricing.

If proven true, the artificially inflated rents resulting from this alleged scheme have placed undue financial burden on millions of renters across the country. The investigation has far-reaching implications for the rental market and could potentially benefit renters if the practices are halted.

…. so ahh, FBI dudes… any chance you can give the RCMP some tips on this because we might have the same sort of problem.