Students at the entrance to the University of Washington in Seattle
There may be another reason for those sky-high rents around the UW campus.
A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in Seattle alleges close to a dozen property management companies conspired to drive-up student apartment costs across the U-S.
“Managers of student housing have used a company called Real Page” attorney Steve Berman tells Northwest Newsradio the scheme dates back as far as 2010 and it gave “everyone (property management companies) access to what prices they’re going to charge, so there’s no incentive to charge a lower price.”
The biggest colleges towns in American were allegedly victimized: Austin, Ann Arbor, Salt Lake City and Seattle.
Back in September foreign exchange student Dyce Nussmeier talked about the inflated cost of housing around the UW campus, “the rent is going up a lot in (the) U District” and I asked, “was housing hard to come by?” the answer wasn’t a surprise “yes actually, it too me some effort.”
Berman says more than a half million student beds, as they’re described in the lawsuit, were subject to yearly rent increases of 2% to 7%. “Greystar, one of the defendants, claims on its website it has 120,000 student beds and manages 12.4 billion dollars in housing.”
The suit alleges Real Page Inc killed competitive pricing and seeks repayment for those who were over-charged. The eleven companies involved could be held liable under federal anti-trust law.
