As someone directly impacted by this (not a broker) just wanted to chime in based on my experience. Typically no fee apartments can get a 10 to even 20% premium on the monthly rent because it’s no fee. Makes sense because as others have said a lot of the inventory is broker-controlled so tenants will pay more in rent to avoid the upfront fee.
My prediction is this will increase rents in high-demand neighborhoods because the prices today in those neighborhoods have been discounted to account for the broker fees. I’m talking the rental rate. Will it go up enough to where it’s more expensive than if there’d been a broker fee? Depends on how long the tenant stays.