Berkeley landlords have used a practice called banking to save up unused rent increases and apply them in a single year, which has left some tenants facing rent hikes of 50 percent or more, according to tenant advocates cited by the San Francisco Chronicle. Measure X, a proposal on the city ballot for November 3, 2026, targets this by capping annual rent increases at 10 percent for fully covered units, including any banked amounts. The measure would keep banking in place but would stop landlords from imposing banked increases above 10% in a single year, as reported by Berkeleyside and SFGATE. This rule aims to block situations where new owners or landlords try to recover several years of deferred increases at once, which can trigger unusually large rent hikes.
The measure would update the city's Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance, first passed by voters in 1980, which set up Berkeley's system for rental-unit registration, rent regulation, and good-cause requirements for ending tenancies. Measure X follows 2024's Measure BB, which expanded rent-board services and related landlord-tenant rules, including coverage of nonprofit-owned housing. The Berkeley City Council put Measure X on the ballot, and it needs a simple majority to pass. If voters approve it, the cap would bring Berkeley's local rules in line with a 2020 California state law that limits most rent increases to 5 percent plus inflation, usually not exceeding 10 percent, as reported by SFGATE.
Changes to Tenant Organizing and Eviction Rules
Measure X would lower the bar for forming a tenants association from properties with at least 10 rental units to those with five, according to SFGATE. The measure would also keep a tenant association's authority in place even if the property's management company changes, so a management switch would not automatically disrupt tenant representation. Property owners who do not meet with a tenant association in good faith could face a rent-reduction petition under the proposed changes. These updates are meant to reinforce the procedural relationship between owners, managers, and organized tenants.
Eviction standards would get stricter. Landlords would have to show "substantial actual damage" for lease-violation evictions, and an eviction notice for unpaid rent could only be filed if the tenant owes at least one month's rent, as detailed by the East Bay Times via SFGATE. These rules would work alongside Berkeley's existing good-cause eviction framework, raising the evidence or arrears threshold for two types of termination cases: alleged lease violations and nonpayment. Measure X would also limit when certain rent-control and just-cause exemptions could be claimed during an existing tenancy, generally keeping protections for a tenant who moved into a covered unit before a later change made the property seem eligible for an exemption. Transitional rules would apply to units already exempt before November 3, 2026, as outlined by Apartments.com.
Fee Waivers and Administrative Adjustments
The measure would let the Rent Stabilization Board waive or reduce registration fees for nonprofit affordable-housing providers, responding to Measure BB's extension of rent-board services to nonprofit-owned housing. Under the current system, the board must charge nonprofit landlords fees of up to $344 per unit, as reported by Berkeleyside. Administrative changes would also move the annual registration-fee deadline from July 1 to September 30 starting in 2027, syncing the fee calendar with the city's fiscal calendar. Supporters say this would help nonprofit affordable-housing providers without removing existing legal protections. The impartial analysis finds that Measure X is not expected to have a fiscal impact on the city.
Berkeley's affordability problems set the stage for the debate. In 2019, 53 percent of renter households in the city were considered rent burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income toward rent, according to California Choices. The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, passed by the state in 1995, still limits how far local governments can go in controlling rents on individual units.
Supporters and Opponents
Supporters of Measure X include the Berkeley Tenants Union, East Bay Housing Organizations, Resources for Community Development, Satellite Affordable Housing Associates, and the Bay Area Community Land Trust, according to SFGATE. Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii, Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra, and Rent Board chair Soli Alpert co-authored the official ballot argument in favor, describing a process that involved tenant advocates, nonprofit providers, and small landlords, as noted by California Choices.
Opposition comes from Jeffrey Neidleman of the Bridge Association of Realtors and Krista Gulbransen of the Berkeley Property Owners Association. Opponents say the measure would add costs, complexity, and legal risk, while doing little to help tenants struggling to pay rent. They also argue that waiving Rent Board fees for nonprofit landlords does not lower rents for tenants in for-profit housing and could shift costs onto those renters, according to SFGATE and California Choices.
The City of Berkeley's official ballot-measures page lists Measure X as amendments to the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, requiring majority approval to take effect. If voters approve it on November 3, 2026, the measure would affect rent-increase administration, tenant-association rights, eviction standards, exemption treatment, and rent-board fees, with the new registration-fee deadline starting in 2027.
For more details, see the original coverage.
