Bath Housing is continuing to purchase rental units in their quest to ensure there is a supply of affordable housing in the city.

The nonprofit purchased a three-story apartment building at 41-43 Lincoln St. early last month. The property has a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

With this most recent purchase, Bath Housing now owns 175 units in the city.

“It’s really important to us that we, the community of Bath, are able to maintain a moderately priced housing stock, so that folks who live here and work here can be here,” said Bath Housing Executive Director Deborah Keller. “This was an opportunity to acquire an existing multi-family (building) and keep the tenants housed.”

She added: “I would say that we’re closely watching some transactions where people have come in and purchased multi-family (buildings) and renovated the properties and significantly increased the rents so that the existing tenants weren’t able to stay in their homes.”

The final price of the property was $325,000, $26,000 above the asking price, due to another interested party driving up the price, according to a report in Maine- Biz.

“With the multis going so fast, when we have an opportunity to grab one … and keep it moderately priced, it feeds into our goal of keeping a range of housing options in this community,” Keller said.

The current 41-43 Lincoln St. tenants will not be asked to leave, said Keller, and the rents will not be raised.

“The rents are very moderately priced there,” she said.

Earlier this year, Bath Housing opened two new apartments at 28 Maple St. It had acquired those units and renovated them through a Community Development Block Grant. Keller said the nonprofit would be applying for another CDBG grant for similar work at the new property.

Despite any renovations made at 41- 43 Lincoln St., the rents will remain affordable.

“We can improve the quality of the property while keeping rents stable,” she said. “Our hope is to receive another CDBG housing assistance award with which we can renovate this property.”

Keller will give a presentation about Bath Housing to the Bath councilors on Wednesday evening, and further discuss the CDBG application.