1.7% Success Rate for TOPA in Washington, D.C.

By Eric Weld, MassLandlords, Inc.

In the 45 years since Washington, D.C., originally enacted its Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), less than 5% of housing units have been successfully preserved or developed as a result of the program. The point estimate is 1.7%.

This “TOPA Mobile,” which reportedly belongs to Andrew McGuire (photographed and captured on video by NBC Washington I-Team), a Washington, D.C., lawyer whose entire practice is focused on winning TOPA payouts and other benefits for tenants and tenants-rights groups. McGuire trademarked the phrase “Got TOPA?” according to the I-Team report, as a way to entice clients. The practice of using TOPA to extort benefits from home sellers has become a massive side industry – about $100 million per year, McGuire says in the report. Image: NBC Washington I-Team.

According to a 2023 study by the Coalition of Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED), the district’s TOPA law resulted in 16,244 units being developed or preserved over a 40-year period. MassLandlords did the math that they didn’t: That figure represents about 5% (5.013%) of all housing units in D.C. (324,000 as of 2025, according to the U.S. Census).

In other words, Washington, D.C.’s, TOPA policy has delayed 100% of home sales not exempted from the law – and raised the cost on many – in order to preserve only 5% (or less) as rentals.

But the actual number falls somewhere short of 5%, because the average duration of homeownership is much shorter than 40 years. The average duration of homeownership in Washington, D.C., has been estimated at 13 years by Redfin. That means that within the 40-year period studied by the CNHED, nearly every household in the district would have transacted a sale on average three times. Many of those transactions would have been impacted by TOPA.

According to the math, the number of successful rental housing preservations due to TOPA, as a percentage of sales, ends up below 5%. Our point estimate is 1.7% of sales.

Meanwhile, TOPA, over its 40-plus years in D.C., has become a tool of extortion in many cases, used by renters and their advocates to negotiate cash payouts, rent concessions and other amenities, according to a 2025 report by the D.C. Policy Center.

“Today, TOPA laws lack a clear objective,” the report notes. “While the original intent was to prevent displacement and preserve affordable housing, TOPA is now used to negotiate for repairs, new amenities, rent concessions, or cash awards for existing tenants.”

If TOPA comes to Massachusetts, we can expect 100% of sales to be delayed for non-exempted properties, leading to cost increases and vulnerability to extortion, all for a success rate of 1.7%.