September 28, 2026 — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s sweeping plan to overhaul Chicago’s rental rules could backfire on the very tenants it aims to help, housing providers warn, driving up apartment rents across downtown high-rises and neighborhood walk-ups alike.
An estimated 54 percent of Chicago residents—some 600,000 households—are renters. While the mayor’s proposed “Protecting Renters Ordinance” (PRO) is framed as a shield against bad landlords and hidden costs, real estate groups argue the measure will pile on bureaucratic burdens that inevitably get passed down to tenants.
The City Council is currently weighing two competing visions for rental reform: Mayor Johnson’s administration-backed PRO ordinance, and the rival “Fair and Accountable Illinois Rental” (FAIR) ordinance backed by a coalition of aldermen and housing groups. Both measures were deferred on September 23, delaying council consideration until September 29 as negotiations continue behind closed doors.
Although industry pushback successfully stripped earlier provisions requiring “just-cause” evictions and mandatory relocation assistance payments, apartment groups say the revised PRO measure remains heavily flawed.
What’s in the mayor’s PRO proposal
According to the latest draft, the PRO ordinance would:
- Ban hidden “junk fees,” including application and processing charges.
- Require algorithmic pricing disclosures, forcing landlords to state whether they use automated software to set rent levels.
- Establish a citywide rental registry, charging owners annual fees ranging from $20 to $60 per unit on larger buildings, while exempting owner-occupied two-to-six flats and nonprofit housing.
- Create a new Bureau of Rental Housing Services, an administrative body tasked with tracking units, offering eviction and dispute resolution help, and enforcing compliance.
The city currently maintains no centralized database of its 600,000-plus rental units. Jung Yoon, the mayor’s chief of policy, said the registry fees—expected to generate roughly $20 million annually—would fund routine housing inspections and enforcement against slumlords.
Housing providers counter that creating a brand-new bureaucracy while Chicago faces a nearly $1 billion budget deficit is a recipe for higher rents. Critics also note that exempting smaller owner-occupied buildings from the registry fees creates an uneven burden on larger multi-family buildings.
The Kiser Group, a North Side apartment brokerage, warned that PRO creates “a dense new web of procedural requirements with more than 100 rules, where a single missed filing or paperwork slip can trigger steep fines.”
Industry analysts estimate that between legal compliance, administrative filings, and per-unit registry fees, the cost will force property managers to raise average rents by at least $100 per unit per month. That pressure comes on top of soaring Cook County property taxes and double-digit hikes in property insurance premiums that are already squeezing housing providers across the city.
Downtown Alderman Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) pushed back against the administration’s approach.
Aldermen counter with the FAIR alternative
That alternative is the FAIR ordinance, sponsored by 36th Ward Alderman Gilbert Villegas and backed by more than 20 aldermen alongside groups like the Chicagoland Apartment Association (CAA) and the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance (NBOA).
FAIR targets abusive practices like illegal lockouts and security deposit withholding, but takes a more market-friendly route:
- It aligns fee disclosure rules with existing state transparency standards rather than banning standard fees outright.
- It preserves the option to charge traditional move-in fees and security deposits while adding cure periods for landlords to correct technical paperwork slips.
- It avoids the PRO bill’s steep per-unit registry fees.
- It introduces new incentives to convert vacant commercial storefronts into residential apartments.
With both ordinances set to return to the floor, council members must decide whether to embrace the mayor’s regulatory overhaul or adopt the industry-backed compromise as Chicago’s rent affordability battle reaches a critical vote.
