{"id":140574,"date":"2026-02-20T23:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140574\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T23:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:40:09","slug":"nyc-landlords-slam-mamdanis-threatened-property-tax-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140574\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC landlords slam Mamdani’s threatened property tax hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s proposed property tax hike<\/a> will put the squeeze on small building owners \u2014 and could even be the \u201cnail in the coffin\u201d for the city\u2019s rent-stabilized market, critics warned.<\/p>\n

Small Property Owners of New York, a nonprofit advocacy group, expressed grave concern about Mamdani\u2019s Tuesday warning that he\u2019ll be \u201cforced\u201d to raise city property taxes a whopping 9.5% to balance the Big Apple budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve heard a lot about billionaires leaving New York City, but nobody talks about the fact that the administration is going to squeeze small property owners in neighborhoods of color out of the city altogether and out of the real estate market,\u201d said SPONY member Jen Lee, a landlord who owns two rent-stabilized tenement buildings in Chinatown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NYC landlords expressed concern that Mayor Mamdani\u2019s threatened property tax Increase would destroy the rental stabilization market. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

He argued that Mamdani\u2019s proposed hike \u2014 framed as a \u201clast resort\u201d if Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature don\u2019t boost taxes on millionaires \u2014 will make it impossible for small landlords to afford maintenance on old buildings, forcing them to sell to banks or developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tell me how I am supposed to provide safe, affordable housing for my community, which is overwhelmingly people of color,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

Christopher Athineos, whose family has owned about 100 apartment units in Bay Ridge for five decades, worried what would happen to his longtime tenants if he were to be forced to sell his properties to a major developer or corporation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are approximately one million rent-stabilized units in New York City. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I can\u2019t maintain the building in the manner in which I\u2019m used to maintaining it in the manner in which my tenants expected it to be maintained, that\u2019s painful for me,\u201d Athineos told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know if I sold my building like the person that\u2019s coming in is not going to be running it\u00a0 the way I\u2019m running it. They\u2019re gonna be worrying about paying their mortgage first,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s plan includes some frightening prospects: a nearly 22% tax for residential homes and townhouses or buildings with just three or fewer units, more than 13.6% for larger apartment buildings and a nearly 12% tax for commercial properties like storefronts or office buildings.<\/p>\n

The whopping 9.5% increase in property taxes aims to balance the city budget. Christopher Athineo<\/p>\n

If it passes, for instance, the owner of an Upper West Side condominium currently assessed at $120,000 would go from paying $14,926 to $16,345 in annual property tax.<\/p>\n

Landlords\u2019 concerns only grew on Wednesday, when Hizzoner announced six new appointees to the rent guidelines board, which sets rent rates for the city\u2019s nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments. <\/p>\n

A cornerstone of Mamdani\u2019s campaign was his promise to \u201cfreeze the rent<\/a>\u201d on those units.<\/p>\n

Landlords\u2019 concerns across the Big Apple have grown as Hizzoner announced six new appointees to the rent guidelines board. Christopher Athineo<\/p>\n

\u201cHe now wields the sledge hammer to enact a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments. This will drive the final nail in the coffin of mom-and-pop, generational, immigrant small property owners, and along with it, the city\u2019s affordable housing infrastructure,\u201d said SPONY\u2019s board president Ann Korchak.<\/p>\n

Korchak has long been warning of the risks of Mamdani\u2019s tenant-centered policies, arguing they will ultimately drive small landlords to bankruptcy<\/a> and pave the way for socialized housing, a policy that the head of the Mayor\u2019s Office of Tenant Protection, Cea Weaver, has notoriously championed.<\/p>\n

Weaver, who was appointed to the new post in January, previously called to abolish private property<\/a>. <\/p>\n

One of Mamdani\u2019s striking points during his campaign was to \u201cfreeze the rent\u201d on rent-stabilized apartments. Christopher Athineo<\/p>\n

Now, her office is holding a series of \u201crental ripoff hearings\u201d encouraging tenants to air grievances against their landlords \u2014 though public housing tenants of NYCHA are not able to attend.<\/p>\n

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A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to The Post\u2019s request for comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s proposed property tax hike will put the squeeze on small building owners \u2014 and could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2954,57,9,24,55,54,56,5592,3006,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-140574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-landlords","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-property-tax","16":"tag-residential-real-estate","17":"tag-us-news","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}