San Francisco Rent Control in 2026: What Renters Need to Know
If you rent in San Francisco, the single most valuable thing you can know about your apartment is whether it falls under the city's Rent Ordinance. The difference is enormous. A rent-controlled tenant in San Francisco can face an increase of 1.6% for the year running March 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027. A tenant in a newer building covered only by state law can legally see 8.8% this year. On a $3,500 apartment, that is the gap between about $56 a month and about $308 a month.
Most renters never check. Here is how to find out where you stand, what your landlord can and cannot do, and the specific numbers that apply right now.
The short version: 1.6% for 2026-2027
The San Francisco Rent Board sets one allowable annual increase each year, tied to 60% of the regional Consumer Price Index change. For rent-controlled units the figure is 1.6% effective March 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027.
Recent years, for context:
March 1, 2026 to February 28, 2027: 1.6%
March 1, 2025 to February 28, 2026: 1.4%
March 1, 2024 to February 28, 2025: 1.7%
Your landlord can impose this increase once every 12 months, and the rate that applies is the one in effect on the date the increase takes effect, not the date the notice was written. Under California Civil Code Section 827, you are owed 30 days' written notice for an increase of 10% or less and 90 days for anything above that.
Is your apartment actually rent controlled?
The dividing line is June 13, 1979. If your building received its first certificate of occupancy on or before that date, it is very likely covered by the rent control portion of the ordinance. Anything built after is exempt from the rent cap because of Costa-Hawkins, the state law that blocks cities from applying rent control to newer construction.
That date covers a lot of San Francisco. Most of the Victorian and Edwardian flats in the Mission, Noe Valley, the Haight, and the Richmond qualify, as do the mid-century apartment buildings across the Sunset, the Marina, and Nob Hill. The glass towers in Mission Bay and Rincon Hill, and the newer Hayes Valley and Dogpatch infill projects, do not.
Three exceptions catch people off guard:
Single-family homes and condos. Costa-Hawkins generally exempts these from local rent control regardless of age. The important carve-out is that if your tenancy began before January 1, 1996 and you never left, you may still be covered.
Substantially rehabilitated buildings. A pre-1979 building that went through a city-approved substantial rehabilitation can lose rent control status.
Subsidized and government-owned housing. These operate under their own rent-setting rules rather than the city ordinance.
To check your own building, pull up the SF Planning Property Information Map or the Assessor-Recorder's property records and look for the year built. If the result is ambiguous, the Rent Board counselors at 25 Van Ness answer walk-in and phone questions for free. Do not assume a renovated interior means a post-1979 building.
What 1.6% actually looks like in dollars
San Francisco asking rents in 2026 have climbed hard. Median one-bedroom asking rent has been running roughly $3,900 to $4,400 depending on the source, with RentCafe putting the average one-bedroom near $3,900 for about 680 square feet and Zumper's new-lease median pushing past $4,300. The two disagree because they measure different things: Zumper tracks new listings in a fast-rising market, while RentCafe reflects a broader and slower-moving base that includes renewals.
That gap is exactly why rent control matters so much here. Run the math on a few realistic rents:
$2,200 rent-controlled studio: 1.6% is about $35 a month
$3,200 rent-controlled one-bedroom: 1.6% is about $51 a month
$4,500 rent-controlled two-bedroom: 1.6% is about $72 a month
A tenant who has held a rent-controlled unit in the Inner Sunset or Bernal Heights for eight years is often paying 30% to 50% below what the same unit would list for today. Staying put is frequently worth more than any upgrade you would get by moving, and that calculation is worth doing honestly before you give notice.
Banked increases: the surprise that hits longtime tenants
Here is the part that catches people. If your landlord skips the annual increase in a given year, that unused percentage does not disappear. It gets banked and can be imposed later. Under Rent Board Rule 4.12 banked percentages are added together rather than compounded, and they are not rounded up, but there has historically been no cap on how much can accumulate. The practical effect: a tenant who went seven or eight years without an increase because a friendly owner never bothered can suddenly receive a notice stacking all of those years at once, landing well into double digits. It is legal, and it has pushed people out of apartments they expected to keep.
This may be changing. In September 2026 Supervisor Danny Sauter and Mayor Daniel Lurie introduced legislation that would cap annual increases from banked rent and certain capital improvement costs at 10% for rent-controlled tenants through 2029, applying to banked increases issued on or after September 15. As of late October 2026 the Board of Supervisors had not yet voted on it. If you receive an unusually large increase notice, check the current status with the Rent Board before you accept it or start packing, because the rules on this specific point are in motion right now.
Passthroughs that can appear on top of the 1.6%
The annual allowable increase is not always the whole bill. A landlord can petition the Rent Board for additional increases:
Capital improvement passthroughs. Seismic retrofits, new roofs, and major system replacements can be amortized and passed through, subject to Rent Board approval and percentage limits. Imputed interest rates for petitions filed between March 1, 2026 and February 28, 2027 run from 4.1% on 7-year amortized improvements to 4.8% on 20-year.
The Rent Board fee. Half of the annual per-unit fee can be passed to you, running about $29.50 a year as the tenant's share.
Utility and operating cost passthroughs. These require a petition and documentation.
Every one of these should arrive in writing with a clear explanation. A passthrough that shows up as an unexplained line item is worth questioning.
If you are not rent controlled, state law probably still covers you
Renting a 1998 building in SoMa does not mean your landlord can name any number. California's Tenant Protection Act, AB 1482, caps increases at 5% plus the regional CPI, with a hard ceiling of 10%. For San Francisco, the cap running August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027 is 8.8%. It generally applies to units at least 15 years old that are not already covered by local rent control, which currently means buildings completed through roughly 2011, and it exempts most single-family homes and condos when the owner has given the required written notice. Brand new construction is exempt for its first 15 years, so a 2024 building in Mission Bay has no rent cap at all right now.
Eviction protections cover almost every SF renter, new buildings included
This is the piece most renters in newer buildings do not know. Costa-Hawkins blocks the city from capping your rent in a post-1979 building, but it does not block eviction controls. Effective January 20, 2020, San Francisco extended the just cause eviction provisions of the Rent Ordinance to units built after June 13, 1979 and to substantially rehabilitated units.
So if you live in a 2015 high-rise in Rincon Hill, your landlord still needs one of the ordinance's enumerated just causes to end your tenancy, and no-fault evictions trigger relocation payments. For notices served between March 1, 2026 and February 28, 2027, an owner or relative move-in eviction requires $8,245 per tenant, capped at $24,733 per unit, plus $5,497 for each tenant who is 60 or older, disabled, or in a household with minor children. Ellis Act evictions run higher at $11,110.05 per tenant, capped at $33,330.13, plus $7,443.90 for each elderly or disabled tenant. Temporary displacement under 20 days carries $446 per day plus actual moving expenses.
Security deposit interest: money most renters never collect
San Francisco requires landlords to pay annual interest on security deposits. The rate for March 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027 is 4.2%, down from 5.0% the prior year. On a $4,000 deposit that is roughly $168 for the year, payable on your move-in anniversary. Most landlords do not volunteer it. Request it in writing, and if it goes unpaid you can file with the Rent Board. Separately, state law now limits most landlords to one month's rent as a security deposit, which has meaningfully lowered move-in costs across the city.
What to do if an increase looks wrong
Do not simply refuse to pay. Work through it in order: confirm your building's year built, confirm it has been at least 12 months since your last increase, and check the percentage against the rate in effect on the increase date. Then ask the landlord in writing to itemize anything above the allowable amount, including banked years or approved passthroughs. If the explanation does not hold up, file a tenant petition with the Rent Board. It is free and does not require a lawyer. The Rent Board, the Housing Rights Committee, and the San Francisco Tenants Union all offer free counseling.
What this means when you are apartment hunting
Year built is a search filter worth using. Two listings at the same price in the same neighborhood can have very different five-year costs depending on which side of June 1979 the building sits. A 1962 building in the Outer Richmond asking $3,100 and a 2018 building in Dogpatch asking $3,100 are not the same deal. Hold both for four years under their respective caps and the older unit is likely hundreds of dollars a month cheaper by the end.
The tradeoff is real. Pre-1979 stock often means no in-unit laundry, street parking only, radiator heat, and single-pane windows, while newer buildings charge you for the amenities both upfront and in uncapped increases later. If you expect to stay a year or two, amenities may win. If you are settling in, the rent-controlled flat almost always wins. When you are comparing listings on Iris, treat the building's age as a hard data point rather than a footnote, and ask the question before you sign.