The Rhode Island House of Representatives today approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Terri Cortvriend enabling Middletown to move forward with its plan to encourage landlords to keep their apartments in the local housing market by providing them a lower tax rate.
According to officials, the intention is to make more housing available to residents by providing incentives for landlords to lease to them rather than to use their properties as short-term vacation rentals.
“This is really a bill to help with the housing crisis, and I’m very happy to assist the Middletown Town Council in putting their idea in place. Every time rental housing gets converted to a short-term rental, that’s less housing available for the people who live here full-time. Middletown already provides a lower rate for owner-occupied housing, but whether or not the owner lives there, encouraging landlords to keep their apartments as housing instead of short-term rentals will help preserve housing units for our residents,” said Representative Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown).
The legislation (2025-H 5694) enables Middletown to adopt a tax classification plan with separate tax rates for divisions of residential properties according to ordinances its adopts.
The Middletown Town Council recently adopted an ordinance that will allow landlords of residential buildings with five or fewer units to qualify for the lower tax rate the town provides to owner-occupied residential properties as long as all the units are rented with leases of one year or more to tenants who use them as their primary home.
The bill now goes to the Senate, which passed companion legislation (2025-S 0351) sponsored by Sen. Louis P. DiPalma (D-Dist. 12, Middletown, Little Compton, Newport, Tiverton) on March 11.