Zillow, Apartments.com pledge to show all-in pricing for prospective renters: White House

Top housing rental companies Zillow, Apartments.com and AffordableHousing.com have committed to showing prospective renters all fees upfront on their websites, the Biden administration announced Wednesday.

The announcement is part of an effort by the administration to expose rental housing junk fees, including application fees, which can increase the housing provider’s costs to run a background or credit check on a prospective renter.

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Additional charges and convenience fees tend to pop up for renters, including fees to pay rent online or to get trash pickup that was otherwise assumed to be included in the final price, senior administration officials said. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a white paper for members of Congress, governors, and local leaders with policy ideas to address rental housing junk fees. States like Colorado and Rhode Island have already enacted such policies, like prohibiting brokers or rental companies from accruing application fees, senior administration officials said.

President Biden has been focused on exposing junk fees across industries. Last month, the White House announced ticket companies — including Ticketmaster and SeatGeek — pledged to eliminate junk fees and roll out all-in pricing numbers for customers.

Biden convened the fifth meeting of the White House Competition Council on Wednesday at the White House to announce the new actions, which the White House said is all part of its so-called “Bidenomics” agenda.

“Bidenomics is about increasing competition, not stifling competition,” Biden said at the top of the council meeting.

“Folks are tired of being played for suckers… and it’s about basic fairness. Today, we’re taking more action,” he added.

Other actions announced Wednesday include steps to help lower food prices and promote competition in agriculture markets by ramping up enforcement measures to stop price fixing.

The Department of Agriculture launched enforcement partnerships with 32 state attorneys general from both sides of the aisle to combat price-gouging and anti-competitive practices in food and agricultural markets. The attorneys general will issue on-the-ground assessments on whether companies in the food and agricultural industry are price gouging.

Additionally, the administration will act to provide clarity about enforcement laws to prohibit anticompetitive mergers. 

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday released its new proposed merger guidelines for public comment. The updated guidelines aim to give the public, businesses and workers clarity about how law enforcement agencies evaluate mergers based on antitrust laws.

The updated guidelines explain how mergers impact people on a daily basis and how people could benefit from mergers, like for workers to seek higher wages or for farmers to get more profit based on the markets, senior administration officials said.

“I’ve said before, capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism, its exploitation,” Biden said on Wednesday, adding that these new actions are building on momentum out of the administration to reduce costs for Americans.

Biden signed an executive order establishing the competition council two years ago with the goal of promoting competition.

Updated at 3:59 p.m.