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Several local property owners and real estate experts told The Star that increased assessment values and the higher property taxes that many expect to follow could likely push landlords to raise rents, put off needed building maintenance or sell their properties to offset the additional expenses — all moves that would fall on renters.

Andrew Syrios, a landlord who owns hundreds of properties in the region, said the assessed values of his nearly 200 Jackson County rental units — including single family homes, duplexes and fourplexes — increased by an average of 61%. A property in Waldo went from $140,000 to $649,000, Syrios said, and a South Kansas City property went from $51,000 to $192,000.

Syrios said he has filed appeals on many of his properties, but if the assessed values don’t come down, he plans to sell some of his buildings and raise the rent for tenants in his remaining buildings. Oren Gamble, a local landlord who owns three single family rental homes in Jackson County, said one of his home’s values went up by $60,000 this year.

He said he has never received an assessment so high or felt forced to raise the rent on his tenants, adding that he prides himself on offering an affordable rent for quality housing. “I actually provide what I feel is home above what most people do provide as a landlord,” he said. “I want the house to be something that I would also be comfortable living in.”

If his tax bill ends up being too high to break even, Syrios said he’s considering selling some of his properties. Any money he makes off of any sales will likely only cover this year’s property taxes, he said.

But this option could have unintended consequences for tenants and neighborhoods, he said, opening up the possibility for out-of-state investors to buy up more housing across the county.

Citywide tenant union KC Tenants raised similar concerns in 2019 when tax values spiked.

“If the assessments push more local owners out of the market, their properties will almost undoubtedly be purchased by out-of-state real estate speculators with no real stake in our community,” KC Tenants said in a statement at the time. “Those corporate owners can be some of the worst, most exploitative landlords and are often unaccountable to tenants, neighbors and the city.”

Data obtained and published by The Star in a 2021 investigation revealed that Kansas City’s East Side has become a hot zone for investors and speculators from across the Kansas City region, all 50 states and at least a dozen countries as far off as Australia and Ukraine.