There is a fight in Massachusetts right now that most Seacoast owners are only half-watching, and it is quietly working in their favor. A rent control measure is headed for the 2026 Massachusetts ballot. Governor Maura Healey has come out flatly against it. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is for it. The outcome is uncertain, and uncertainty is exactly the thing that moves capital.
For owners of multifamily in New Hampshire, this is not background noise. It is a tailwind.
What is on the table in Massachusetts
The ballot question would cap annual rent increases on most units at the lower of inflation or 5%. Owner-occupied buildings with four units or fewer would be exempt, and new construction would be exempt for its first ten years. Massachusetts voters banned rent control statewide back in 1994. A return to it, even a limited version, would be a significant reversal.
The vote has not happened yet, and it may not pass. That part almost does not matter. The mere prospect is already changing where investors put their money.
The capital is voting with its feet before the ballot does
Governor Healey, in arguing against the measure, said the quiet part out loud. She has said investors have already pulled out of Massachusetts deals over rent control concerns, and that she personally fielded calls from developers who lost funding on projects representing thousands of units. Her words, not a landlord lobby's.
When an asset class gets a whiff of rate caps, the capital does not wait for the law to pass. It reprices the risk immediately and looks for the nearest jurisdiction without that overhang. For Boston-area multifamily money, the nearest such jurisdiction is New Hampshire.
New Hampshire is the landlord-friendly side of the line
New Hampshire is the only New England state currently moving in a clearly owner-favorable direction on landlord-tenant law. No rent control. No state income tax. No sales tax. A transparent permitting and development environment. For an investor deciding between a Massachusetts building exposed to a possible cap and a New Hampshire building that is not, the math is not close.
That is why brokers and trade press across the region have spent 2026 writing some version of the same headline: New Hampshire is the beneficiary of Massachusetts' investment uncertainty. Out-of-state capital that used to compete for triple-deckers in Somerville and Quincy is now bidding on multifamily north of the border.
Why the Seacoast captures it first
Capital crossing the border does not scatter randomly. It lands closest to where it came from, and it follows yield. The Seacoast is the first landing spot for Boston money, close enough to keep an eye on, integrated into the same metro economy, with employers like Albany International recently relocating their corporate headquarters to Pease. That is the demand base out-of-state buyers underwrite against.
The yield, though, is one county north. Rockingham multifamily has already compressed. The investor arriving from Massachusetts with a Boston cost basis in mind looks at Rochester, Somersworth, and Dover and sees cap rates that no longer exist anywhere near the city. That is where the incoming capital is increasingly pointed, and that is where it lifts values for owners who are already there.
What this means if you own multifamily here
You are holding the scarce thing: cash-flowing multifamily in a jurisdiction that has no appetite for capping your rents, in the path of capital actively leaving the jurisdiction next door. That combination supports your value whether or not you ever sell.
If you are thinking about selling, the buyer pool is widening, not shrinking, as out-of-state and 1031 capital crosses the line looking for exactly the kind of building you own. If you are thinking about holding, the same inflows that bid up the next sale also bid up your refinance appraisal. And if you are weighing where to add, the Strafford County submarkets are where the arriving capital is finding the yield it can no longer get closer to Boston.
If you want to talk through where your building sits in all of this, we are glad to walk through the numbers on your specific situation. No pressure, just an honest read.
Talk to Stone Keane