Press Release: Small Property Owners Association Announces New Leadership and Outlines Housing Policy Priorities for 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact
Name: Amir Shahsavari
Title: President
Organization: Small Property Owners Association
Phone number: 617-354-5533
Email: askspoa@gmail.com
Website: www.spoa.com
Small Property Owners Association Announces New Leadership and Outlines Housing Policy Priorities for 2026
Boston, MA, January 2026 — The Small Property Owners Association (SPOA) has begun 2026 by passing the baton to new leadership. After serving as Vice President for five years, Amir Shahsavari begins the year as President of SPOA, with Tony Lopes elected as Vice President. Both leaders were elected to their new positions by the Board last month.
“I would like to thank the SPOA Board for their support and confidence as we begin the next chapter in SPOA’s legacy,” said Shahsavari. “That legacy is rooted in defending property rights while promoting balanced housing policies that benefit renters, property owners, and the many businesses that rely on small landlords to keep our neighborhoods strong, safe, and stable.”
“It’s my privilege to help lead this next chapter,” said Lopes. “Small business owners provide the majority of the rental housing in Massachusetts, yet they are facing rapidly rising operating costs that make staying in business more difficult with each passing year.”
Small Property Owners Supply Most Rental Housing and Operate at the Margins
Small property owners are small business owners who provide 65 percent of the rental housing in Boston and Massachusetts. We manage our properties in a more hands-on way, making us directly available to our tenants in the process of making them feel at home.
In Massachusetts, these owners provide a large share of naturally occurring affordable housing and they are typically local, family-run businesses rather than institutional investors.
Shahsavari emphasized that most small property owners operate at thin margins.
“We cannot solve the housing dilemma without protecting small property owners within the housing ecosystem,” Shahsavari said. “They are more likely to live nearby, respond to tenant needs quickly, and reinvest locally. When they are pushed out, renters lose the most accessible and accountable housing providers.”
Rising Costs Are Squeezing Small Property Owners
Small property owners are experiencing compounding cost increases across nearly every category, including:
Utilities, with electricity and natural gas rates in Massachusetts increasing by double-digit percentages since 2021 due to energy market volatility, infrastructure upgrades, and regulatory mandates.
Property insurance, where premiums for small landlords have increased by an estimated 20 to 40 percent, particularly for older multifamily buildings.
Taxes and municipal fees, including property taxes, water and sewer rates, inspection fees, and compliance costs that continue to rise annually.
Maintenance and construction, where repair and renovation costs remain 30 to 50 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels, driven by labor shortages and material inflation.
“These costs do not pause just because rents are capped,” Lopes said. “They continue to rise year after year.”
SPOA opposes the proposed rent control ballot initiative and is actively working to educate policymakers and the public about its risks to housing supply, affordability, and housing quality.
The Risks of Rent Control
“And this is why rent control is so dangerous to all of us,” Lopes said. “When rents are capped artificially while operating costs continue to rise, property owners can no longer keep up with maintenance and repairs. Over time, this leads to deferred maintenance, declining housing quality, and owners exiting the market altogether.”
Numerous academic studies have found that rent control reduces housing supply, discourages investment and maintenance, and accelerates consolidation by large institutional investors, while failing to deliver long-term affordability.
Lopes noted that rent control has failed repeatedly both in the United States and internationally.
“They abandoned it in places like Egypt and Venezuela,” Lopes said. “Closer to home, St. Paul, Minnesota became a real-time case study. After rent control was enacted, new housing construction dropped sharply, and investment shifted to neighboring Minneapolis. Within months, rents in Minneapolis declined as supply increased, while rents in rent-controlled St. Paul rose as supply tightened.”
Massachusetts History Confirms the Evidence
“People should understand that rent control is not an affordable housing solution,” Shahsavari said. “It is a policy that sounds compassionate but consistently produces the opposite result, higher long-term costs, deteriorating housing, and fewer choices for tenants.”
Massachusetts voters recognized this reality when they banned rent control statewide in 1994.
Shahsavari pointed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, which once had the most restrictive rent control regime in the state.
“When Cambridge voters, including renters, were given the opportunity to reinstate rent control in 2003, they rejected it decisively by a 61 percent to 39 percent margin,” Shahsavari said. “That outcome is rarely mentioned by activists, but it occurred in the very city that pioneered rent control in Massachusetts.”
The Myth of the ‘Small Owner Exemption’
Shahsavari cautioned against claims that current rent control proposals protect small property owners.
“The so-called exemption only applies to owners who live in buildings with four units or fewer,” he said. “Those owners represent a minority of the small property owner population.”
He continued, “The majority, owners with five, six, ten, or twenty units, would be fully subject to rent control, despite operating nothing like large institutional landlords. Treating them the same as multinational corporations with thousands of units ignores the reality of who actually supplies housing in this state.”
Lopes added that housing investment decisions are long-term decisions.
“Even if new construction is exempted for ten years, builders and investors will not commit capital in a rent-controlled environment when more predictable conditions exist elsewhere,” Lopes said.
A Personal Cost and a Call for Better Solutions
Shahsavari shared a personal account illustrating the real-world consequences of rent control.
“My mother came to this country as an immigrant and chose to give back by providing housing,” he said. “During the rent control era of the 1980s and 1990s, the system prevented her from repairing and improving her building and from addressing willful nonpayment and property damage. Good tenants eventually left out of fear and frustration.”
“Yes,” Lopes added. “Many people come to Boston seeking the American dream. When they encounter policies that have failed everywhere else, they understandably question why they came here at all.”
A Path Forward: Turning Renters into Owners
Rather than punitive regulation, SPOA is advocating for innovative and collaborative solutions.
“We need more owners in our society, not more permanent renters,” Shahsavari said. “That is why we are proposing a voluntary program that allows property owners to help tenants build a pathway to homeownership.”
Under the proposal, a portion of rent would be allocated toward a tenant’s future down payment. Government would provide matching funds and tax incentives, while property owners would have access to interest-free loans to repair and improve housing stock.
“This approach rewards responsibility, improves housing quality, and aligns the interests of tenants, owners, and government,” Shahsavari said. “It transforms housing from a zero-sum conflict into a partnership.”
About the Small Property Owners Association (SPOA)
The Small Property Owners Association represents small, locally owned rental housing providers across Massachusetts. SPOA advocates for balanced, evidence-based housing policy that protects renters, preserves housing quality, and ensures small property owners remain viable contributors to strong, stable communities.
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