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HRE Professes Rent Control Neutrality

Rents will also not necessarily risedramatically. "There are a lot of tenants," shesaid. "We have to be prudent and responsiblelandlords."

Keller also said that many of Harvard's rentswould not be affected by a rent control ban, sincemany of them are already close to the marketprice.

Kaufman agreed with this statement "preciselybecause they work the system so aggressively."

He said HRE's "only big money would be fromselling....the next landlord may not haveHarvard's resources" to secure higher rents.

The removal of that barrier to higher rents,Kaufman said, would sent the value of rental unitssoaring.

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Kaufman conceded that Harvard is unlikely tosell many of its properties. "Harvard is anaccumulator, not a seller," he said.

But the higher property values are incentiveenough for Harvard to want Question Nine to pass,he said. This is especially true for when Harvardwants to make a swap involving some of its land,which it has done in the past, Kaufman said

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