Berkeley rent predictions

UC Berkeley academic workers, members of United Auto Workers, and Student Researchers United have rallied together to call upon the university to provide affordable housing to students and employees.

Just how rent-burdened they are can be spelled out in decimal points - during a recent demonstration, the percentages were chalked on the ground in front of California Hall where UC Berkeley administration offices are located. 

Berkeley natives want their city back

While the university commits to adding thousands of student beds in the coming years, some 3,050 students may have to be turned away this upcoming fall because of an enrollment cap.

That's the result of a lawsuit Berkeley citizens lodged against the university, successfully arguing that the population growth of students is taking a toll on city services, scarce local housing, and noise.

With all of this commotion, we thought we'd reach out to Krista Gulbransen, head of the Berkeley Property Owners Association, to get her prediction on where rents are headed if student enrollment is slashed.

"This one is a mixed bag. First and foremost, there still isn’t enough housing. Period. That hasn’t changed. California is so far behind in its production of housing to keep up with its residents, that you could scale back half the enrollment at UCB and we’d still have a problem with not enough housing in Berkeley.

So while I don’t think rents are going to fall hard as a result of the scale back on student enrollment, I think what we will continue to see (because the pandemic really started this) is an increased number of vacancies for a longer period of time.

And the competition that rental housing providers will be facing is going to get steeper. And for mom and pops, this can be as devasting as rents tipping backwards majorly because it’s very hard to compete with the larger companies/owners that have the resources to come ahead."