Landlord Atlas

San Francisco, California: Rent Ordinance

Verified August 13, 2026 All California topics →

San Francisco caps rent increases for sitting tenants at 1.6% from March 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027 in most buildings first occupied on or before June 13, 1979.

Cited to S.F. Admin. Code § 37.2 (definitions and coverage) and 6 more sources · Verified August 13, 2026

The cap is set each year at 60% of Bay Area inflation and can never exceed 7%; skipped increases can be banked, and landlords keep the right to raise rent by reporting their units to the Rent Board's housing inventory each year. Newer buildings, single-family homes, and condominiums are outside the city cap, though many fall under California's statewide limit of 5% plus inflation (10% maximum) once their certificate of occupancy is more than 15 years old. Nearly every rental in the city — capped or not — is covered by the ordinance's eviction rules, which allow a landlord to end a tenancy only for one of seventeen listed reasons.

Current published figures

Figure Value Applies to Source
Annual allowable rent increase 1.6% March 1, 2026 – February 28, 2027 Official source

These figures change on a published cycle; each row states the window it applies to and links the source that published it. Confirm the current figure at the source before acting on it.

What is in force

In force today. San Francisco has limited rent increases since June 13, 1979 under the Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Ordinance, Administrative Code Chapter 37, administered by the Rent Board. The chapter has been amended continuously; the most recent substantive amendment, effective February 8, 2026, expanded protections around residential demolitions and major renovations and added a seventeenth eviction ground.

The rent increase limit

Each year the Rent Board publishes the allowed increase — 60% of the change in the Bay Area consumer price index, and never more than 7% — effective March 1 through the end of February. A landlord keeps the right to impose it by reporting the unit to the Rent Board's housing inventory, and increases a landlord skips may be banked and imposed in later years. Larger increases require a Rent Board petition, such as certified capital improvement passthroughs.

What housing is covered

Most apartments in buildings first occupied on or before June 13, 1979. Newly built units first occupied after that date, certified substantially rehabilitated buildings, and — for tenancies begun in 1996 or later — separately owned single-family homes and condominiums are outside the rent cap, along with hotel rooms until 32 days of continuous occupancy, resident-controlled nonprofit cooperatives, dormitories, and licensed care facilities. The ordinance's eviction protection reaches further than its rent cap: nearly every rental in the city, including newer buildings and single-family homes, is covered by the eviction rules.

What happens on vacancy

When a tenant moves out voluntarily, state law lets the landlord set a new starting rent at any amount; the annual cap then applies to the new tenancy. The reset is not available after certain owner-initiated terminations.

Eviction and termination rules

A landlord may end a covered tenancy only on one of seventeen grounds listed in the ordinance, including nonpayment, breach of lease, owner or relative move-in, substantial rehabilitation, and withdrawal of the property from the rental market. No-fault evictions carry relocation payments with amounts that adjust annually, and tenant buyout offers must follow the ordinance's disclosure, rescission, and filing rules.

Registration and filings

Owners must report each unit to the Rent Board's housing inventory and update the report annually by March 1. Keeping the report current is what entitles a landlord to impose the annual increase — increases are not owed for months in which that entitlement was suspended — and the Rent Board charges an annual per-unit fee.

Other requirements

Certified passthroughs let landlords recover portions of capital improvement, utility, bond, and property-tax costs through Rent Board procedures, and the Rent Board's rules govern petitions and hearings in both directions — landlords seeking larger increases and tenants seeking reductions for lost services.

Notes and caveats

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, San Francisco, California: Rent Ordinance (verified August 13, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/california/san-francisco/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).

Citations

This page records local law. Statewide rules — deposits, notice periods, late fees, entry, evictions — live on the California hub, and the state-level position on local rent regulation appears there with its own citations and verification date.