The Biden administration has made cracking down on anti-competitive activity a cornerstone of its domestic economic agenda. | Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesThe Justice Department is expanding its probe of the rental housing market, opening a criminal investigation of a top developer of property pricing software and some of its customers, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.
The move opens a new front in an array of investigations and lawsuits targeting the rental housing market by the DOJ, state attorneys general and class-action plaintiff lawyers. It involves software companies such as RealPage and dozens of managers and owners of apartment complexes around the country. The White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have produced several policy directives aimed at the industry.
The Biden administration has made cracking down on anti-competitive activity a cornerstone of its domestic economic agenda, and antitrust enforcers at the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission are key to that goal. The DOJ investigations at least partly track with the allegations laid out in the existing lawsuits, according to the people with knowledge of the matter. The nearly 40 property owners and managers contacted by POLITICO either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.