In a move that could ease the financial strain on renters across Los Angeles, the City Council has approved a long-awaited overhaul of its rent increase rules — the first significant update in 40 years.

For many Angelenos, searching for an affordable apartment has felt increasingly impossible. Rents have steadily pushed upward, vacancies remain tight, and the dream of securing a reasonably priced home seems to slip further out of reach each year.

This week, city leaders took a decisive step to address the issue by voting to tighten the limits on how much landlords can raise rent annually. The reform modernizes L.A.’s long-standing rent stabilization guidelines, cutting the allowable annual increase from the previous 3%–8% range to a narrower 1%–4%, depending on inflation, according to Politico.

The revised cap will affect about 75% of the city’s rental housing — specifically properties built before 1978 that fall under Los Angeles’ rent stabilization ordinance. The decision comes after years of debate over how to reasonably protect tenants while still ensuring that building owners can cover rising operating costs.

City-commissioned economic reports played a key role in shaping the final policy. Analysts found that Los Angeles rents have risen faster than those in several other major California cities with similar regulations. At the same time, the market value of rent-stabilized buildings — and the income owners receive from them — has doubled over the past ten years. These findings ultimately encouraged policymakers to craft a compromise that ties rent adjustments to inflation, but with a significantly lower maximum increase.