Hello! I’m Myles Artis, Government Affairs Director for Minneapolis Area Realtors®. I’m committed to keeping you posted on legislation or advocacy alerts that could impact your business. Let’s dive in:
What’s happening:
In mid-July, The City of Minneapolis introduced a proposal called the Affordable Housing Preservation (AHP) Ordinance, which aims to 1) preserve and grow the City’s affordable housing stock by providing opportunities for local community ownership and 2) prevent displacement of renters due to conversion of rental properties.
This policy would give qualified organizations (QOs) the rights of first offer and first refusal when certain rental housing buildings are made available for sale. If a QO were to acquire a rental housing building, affordability and renter protections would apply.
What your Association has done:
When MAR became aware of this ordinance, our Government Affairs Committee recognized the resurgence of TOPA within it. TOPA—the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act—aims to offer tenants the first right to purchase, negotiate, or refuse for the home or unit they’re living in. This process, however, causes burden for both potential buyers and sellers in the marketplace because it pauses the homebuying process while tenants determine whether they want to/are capable of purchasing.
A group of Realtors® spoke at in-person and virtual feedback sessions to voice their concerns and provide their perspectives to Minneapolis City Council members and community. They expressed that QO’s have an unfair advantage of first choice of the best properties, which affects first time and first-generation homebuyers, and that most buyers can’t wait through lengthy first offer and right of first refusal time periods. Additionally, we also represent sellers. The proposed first rights and waiting periods will reduce the buyer pool and put them at a disadvantage in negotiations.
Meetings are being set by Local Political Coordinators with City Council members to help address these concerns.
So why is this important for you?
As you know, proposals like these impact both buyers and sellers, those of which you represent. These impacts only stymie property owners’ rights to sale. Realtors® favor the creation of homeownership opportunities and support a wide variety of housing options. However, the AHP Ordinance and other TOPA-like proposals have several drawbacks, unintended consequences, and substantially alter private property rights and property ownership. We are advocating for your interests in order to work with the city council to amend this proposal and to talk about how we can actually increase our affordable housing supply in Minneapolis.
This update is meant to be for your awareness only. If there comes a time where I will need your participation on anything advocacy related, you will hear from me.
If you have any questions, I’m happy to talk more: please email me at my****@*********or.com
Myles Artis
Government Affairs Director, Minneapolis Area Realtors®