Support from the city’s Housing Committee remains as the final hurdle before a proposal to push back the date at which landlords can begin showing and leasing apartments can go before city council after the committee decided Wednesday to table the issue until their meeting next month.

Currently, landlords must wait until one-fourth of the lease has expired before renting or showing prospective renters a property. The proposed reform would push that date back, forcing landlords to wait until one-half the lease has passed, which would fall around mid-February.

Proponents maintain the proposal would reduce the annual rush to enter into leases each November, allowing students more time to consider their housing options for the following year.

Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs representatives said pressure from peers and advertisements force students, particularly freshmen, into hasty leases. Having recently arrived on campus, freshmen are ill-equipped to make housing decisions for the following year, Legislative Affairs member and University of Wisconsin freshman Alexandra Perraud said.

Perraud said she experienced the pressure of entering into a lease early in the fall, after receiving a bombardment of e-mails from various property owners. Perraud entered into a lease in November, but for various reasons had to back out of it.

“I believe that had I had more time, and had the leasing process starting in February, I would have a much more concrete view of who I would want to live with, my plan for following year . . . and where was an appropriate place to live for a sophomore,” Perraud said.

The proposal sparked debate about the role of government in mitigating the problem.

Madison Property Management President Jim Stopple said the proposed solution of government intervention is worse than the problem itself.

Ald. Bridget Maniaci, District 2, however, said a free-market approach is untenable.

“This isn’t a freely-operating, self-regulated market,” Maniaci said. “It is a very manipulated market to begin with. This is a good place for us to be involved.”

Committee members discussed concerns about the effects of a later lease date in relation to the date at which students renew their contracts with University Housing.

If the proposed later lease date were to be implemented, Madison Property Management representative Rachel Govin said students would have to choose between renewing their residence hall contract or waiting for apartment leases to open up, which involves some risk.

Many students begin apartment hunting in November and if unsatisfied with their options, choose to reenter into a student-housing contract in February, Govin said. Under the proposed change, those students would not have that fallback option because the residence hall renewal date would have already passed.

Students would thereby be forced to stay in the residence halls, committee member Curtis Brink said

“Now basically you’re going to be in the dorms for the rest of your life,” Brink said.

After discussing the student-housing renewal issue, the committee agreed more information was needed before voting on the proposal.

The committee will reopen discussion and vote on the proposal at its next meeting. If approved, the amendment would require final approval by the city council.