Realpage is involved in a vicious loop, not a virtuous loop. Even in the Bay Area, corporate landlords jack up rent like 10% every year, whereas small landlords are happy to raise rent by 3%. That's the difference due to algorithmic collusion set and controlled by RealPage.
How are the corporate landlords able to rent their units if the small landlords are selling equal quality units for substantially less? Wouldn't everyone just rent from the small landlords while the corporate apartments stay vacant? This is the hole in the price-fixing argument: price-fixing only works when everyone is onboard, otherwise the parties not involved in price fixing will gobble up the market share.
I wouldn't be surprised if corporate-run apartments are more expensive. They're are usually renting much nicer buildings with amenities like air conditioning, parcel delivery rooms, gated parking, etc.
Exactly: prices are rising because there isn't enough supply to satisfy demand.
I have, in fact, rented in San Francisco. I rented from a small landlord in a building that had no A/C, no package room, no parking. I had to fix my refrigerator and shower mixer myself because she barely spoke English. But it was a cheap apartment! I also rented from a corporate landlord. It had a lot of amenities like a gym, a package room, and parking. But I paid a lot more for that apartment.
Because there's a shortage of units overall. All units get rented; the corporate landlords just make more profit, and a lot of people are priced out of the market, including many existing residents.
Small landlords who didn't use RealPage didn't struggle with occupancy. Large ones "fired" renters and warehoused apartments, meeting debt obligations at occupancy rates even below 80%.
And most amenities are bullshit. They've taken ordinary, expected services and privatized them, externalizing the costs to residents for kickbacks, and made elective services like cable and internet mandatory through exclusive provider agreements to inflate revenue.
In aggregate, squeezing older properties subsidizes newer properties by equalizing returns. They're making just as much or more off of cheaper properties as newer "premium" ones.
