Dozens of landlords have been accused of manipulating rent prices through the use of online software RealPage, according to tenant groups.
real page is a property management software that uses data to recommend pricing for millions of properties in the United States.
Tenants in Jersey City, New Jersey, have filed a class action lawsuit against RealPage and 34 landlords over rent prices in a 527-unit building. The popular waterfront property is approximately 20 minutes from the World Trade Center.
Separately, the Department of Justice also made a submission. statement of interest The article alleges that landlords shared non-public information, including vacancy data, with RealPage and used that information to inflate rent prices.
Automation must be “similarly reprehensible” to price-fixing schemes, the Justice Department said. “Long-standing legal principles apply with equal force to this new machine,” the ministry added, according to Reuters.
In November 2023, the Attorney General of Washington, D.C. another complaint against RealPage and 14 other landowners.
They weren’t your typical landlords. The company operates a whopping 50,000+ rental units in Washington, D.C., and with so many units enrolled in its automated system, thousands of tenants can be at the same time if a landlord chooses to follow the recommendations. There is a possibility that the rent will increase.
“RealPage is, in effect, facilitating a housing cartel,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb reportedly said. “Rather than making independent decisions about what the market here in Washington, D.C., wants in terms of filling vacant units, landlords, based on the terms of their contracts with RealPage, are required to charge fees as directed by RealPage. “We are forced to do so,” he continued.
“Defendants’ systematic anticompetitive conduct amounted to a District-wide housing cartel,” Schwalb added.
In particular, one of the tools used on the website is called YieldStar, which balances lease terms, occupancy, and pricing data to optimize revenue.
Jeffrey Roper, a former RealPage employee and inventor of YieldStar, says, “You just turn the system on and it outperforms a manual analyst. There’s almost no chance it won’t.” Masu.
RealPage reported CNBC The company’s revenue management product uses anonymized, aggregated data to provide pricing recommendations that can increase landlord revenue by 2% to 7%. However, the company also told the outlet that customers are under no obligation to accept the company’s price offer.
The company was acquired by Thoma Bravo in 2021 for $10.2 billion. However, the parent company reportedly claimed it was not responsible for RealPage’s alleged actions.
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