The City of Ketchum’s Rental Preservation Program, which is administered by Placemate, offers financial incentives to existing landlords who agree to continue to rent their property to qualified local households for three years. Property owners must have rented full-time for at least the past 12 months and must sign a new 12 month lease with a qualified household starting June 1, 2025 or later (which must include at least one of their existing tenants).
The goals of the Program are to preserve stable, long-term rental housing for local tenants across multiple years, to support existing landlords renting long-term to locals, and to expand the City’s suite of housing programs through a multi-year and efficient preservation solution.
Property owners who agree to long-term rent their property for a total period of three years (36 months) are eligible for an incentive through the Rental Preservation Program (in addition to rent collected each month). Incentives are based on unit size, and are paid directly from the City of Ketchum to property owners in 4 payments over the 3 year period.
Payments are issued when the property first enters the program (0 months) and when the property has been rented for 12, 24 and 36 cumulative months to a qualified household. Payments get progressively larger to incentivize property owners to continue renting long-term. See the following schedule:
| Studio | 1-Bed | 2-Bed | 3-Bed+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
0 Mo (15%) — Application
Approved |
$900 |
$1,200 |
$1,500 |
$1,800 |
|
12 Mo (15%) |
$900 |
$1,200 |
$1,500 |
$1,800 |
|
24 Mo (30%) |
$1,800 |
$2,400 |
$3,000 |
$3,600 |
|
36 Mo (40%) — Final Payment |
$2,400 |
$3,200 |
$4,000 |
$4,800 |
|
Total Incentive |
$6,000 |
$8,000 |
$10,000 |
$12,000 |
A person who is employed, self-employed, or offered employment and is working an average of 30 hours per week for 1 or more employers whose business activity is within Blaine County (“local employer”).
Exceptions to the minimum work hours include teachers and military personnel. Breaks in employment requirements due to temporary physical or mental disability, family medical leave, and education or training are not disqualifying. Employers that create and manage short-term rentals are not considered a local employer.
A person 65 years or older who meets at least one of the following criteria:
Must meet one of the following criteria:
In addition to the above criteria, person who falls into any of the following:
Fill out a Preliminary Application Form at the bottom of this page, which will be available until June 6, 2025. Once the application period closes, properties will be prioritized based on affordability and Placemate will notify you if you were selected to participate in the program.
If you are a renter and you think your landlord would be a good fit for the program, please refer them to this page and have them submit a Preliminary Application Form.
Upon reviewing your property’s information, we will reach out to schedule an intake call to go over program details. Following your call, owners must submit documentation verifying they have been renting for the past 12 months and documentation of the current rental rate.
Next, we will collect applications from your tenant(s) to verify they are a qualified household (see document details in FAQs below). We will also collect verification of property owner’s past 12 months of continuous long-term renting and verification of the existing rental rate.
Once the qualified household has been verified, the property owner and tenants can sign a 12 month lease with a start date of June 1, 2025 or later at or below your current rental rate. The Qualified household must include at least 1 tenant who is currently renting the unit. With all this information we will collect a program application (including W-9 tax form) to submit to the City of Ketchum; we have 60 days from the start of the lease to submit an application.
Once the lease starts, the first 15% of the incentive will be mailed from the City of Ketchum. We will check-in with property owners and tenants 45 days from the end of the lease to ensure the property will continue to be used as a qualified household’s long term rental. Placemate will help owners remain in compliance to receive payments 2, 3 and 4 following completed check-ins.
Eligible properties must have been rented full-time consecutively for at least the past 12 months.
The unit must be a house, condominium, multifamily (4 or fewer unit building), mobile home, or accessory dwelling unit and must be located in Ketchum’s City Limits, excluding properties in the Avalanche Zone District.
To verify that your tenants qualify for the Rental Preservation Program, you can follow the same steps we go through. By reviewing the below documents yourself, you can ensure your tenants qualify before passing their names and emails onto Placemate for us to send them the online tenant application. Placemate will need employment documents and an application from each tenant (even from tenants that don’t qualify) to ensure the group as a whole is eligible. Note, additional documentation may be required from some tenants depending on their circumstances.
All adult tenants must provide:
Local employees must provide at least 1 of the following:
If self-employed, all of the following:
For persons 65+ and no longer working full-time (30 hrs/week on average), tenant must submit the following:
For persons who are unable to work full-time due to a disability:
Owners can participate in the Rental Preservation Program with no more than 1 unit.
Following your first lease term in the program, participating properties are subject to a maximum 3.5% rent increase every 12 months that their property is in the program.
Placemate must be notified of any changes to the tenant household.
If at any point the entire existing household group moves out, they must be replaced with a new qualified household on a new 12 month lease.
If at any point a portion of the group moves out, the group must be modified such that at least 1 qualified tenant remains in the property.
All new tenants are required to submit a tenant application to Placemate, regardless of their qualification status.
New tenants can be added onto the original lease by drafting an addendum, subleasing from the original tenants, or the whole group may sign a new 12 month lease.
Each subsequent payment is sent to owners once they have rented their property to a qualified household for a cumulative 12, 24 and 36 months (see schedule above). In order to be issued a subsequent payment, Placemate must collect the following from participating owners and their tenants at the 12 and 24 month mark:
At the 36 month mark, Placemate will collect:
If at any point the household group changes, the property owner has 90 days to replace the tenants who moved out such that a qualified household resides in the property. These 90 days (or fewer) do not count towards the property’s cumulative 36 months of renting.
Fill out a Preliminary Application Form at the bottom of this page, which will be available until June 6, 2025. Once the application period closes, property information will be evaluated and owners will be reached out to by Placemate to sign up for an intake call based on how affordable their rental is. Leases must start June 1, 2025 or later and applications must be submitted within 60 days of the start of the lease.
Note – if you are a renter and you think your landlord would be a good fit for the program, please refer them to this page and have them submit a Preliminary Application Form.
Properties that participated in Lease to Locals are not eligible to participate in the Rental Preservation Program.
To participate in the Rental Preservation Program, property owners must submit their unit’s information in the form below. The form is available until June 6, 2025 at which point Placemate will evaluate applications and will begin to reach out to property owners to sign up for an intake call.