Mayor Zorhan Mamdani is expected to announce on Tuesday that dozens of New York City landlords will be spared by his proposed rent freeze this year to help some of the most financially-distressed property owners cope.
The 34-year-old mayor campaigned for the job of leading the biggest city in the nation last year with one key promise: freezing rents on the city’s nearly 1 million rent-regulated apartments for all four years of his term, offering relief to about 2.4 million New Yorkers.
The move, considered ambitious, has recently moved much closer to becoming reality.
This month, the panel that regulates rent for the city’s rent-regulated apartments—the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board—cast its first vote since Mamdani took office, supporting increases of between 0 percent and 2 percent on one-year leases, and 0 percent and 4 percent on two-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments.
Currently, a median rent-stabilized studio apartment goes for about $1,360 a month, and a two-bedroom rents for about $1,530, according to city data mentioned by The New York Times. The median rent for a market-rate studio is $2,000, and for a two-bedroom it is $2,200.
The board’s vote was significantly different from last year, whey a majority of members backed increases of 3 percent on one-year leases and 4.5 percent on two-year leases, despite widespread concerns over the city’s housing affordability crisis.
But this year, Mamdani has pushed rent to the forefront of policy discussion in New York, and a majority of board members, while operating independently from the mayor and his office, have been appointed by the Democrat.
Now, Mamdani is starting to etch out the details of his proposed rent freeze in a way that seems to consider criticism by New York City landlords about being able to still run their properties in a way that makes financial sense—at least for those already faring pretty badly.
What Landlords Will Be Exempt From the Rent Freeze?
As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the mayor will exempt the most distressed rent-stabilized landlords in the city from the freeze, allowing them to charge a one-time rent increase on certain empty units.
These are likely to include some 300,000 apartments financed through the city’s housing agencies and would become eligible for the rent increase once empty, the Journal wrote. That is the equivalent of about one-third of the city’s overall rent-stabilized housing stock.
The exact percentage increases, the Journal reported, will be determined on a case-by-case basis and will be limited by the income caps set by the city, but they could put hundreds of dollars a month more in landlords’ pockets in some cases.
Any increase seems to be in direct opposition to Mamdani’s campaign promises, but the idea behind it is to keep affordable housing stock available for New Yorkers.
Other measures expected to be announced by the mayor on Tuesday will include making it easier for rent-stabilized landlords to finance property improvements, secure tax exemptions and clear their housing-code violations.
The mayor is also expected to announce the launch of a $5 million loan program for landlords to help pay tenants’ overdue rent and avoid evictions.
Mamdani’s larger housing plan also includes his campaign promise to build 200,000 new affordable homes over the next 10 years and preserve 200,000 existing ones.