![\"Zohran](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/d19eed1ae08edaf6b516f2a3d7081296.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nOn Election Day in Astoria, Ellie stood in a line that curled around the block of her polling site.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old paralegal, who declined to use her real name for privacy reasons, earns $78,000 annually \u2014 and has been priced out of three apartments in five years. Her rent jumped $520 in the last three years alone to $2,270, not including utilities, and that\u2019s even living with two roommates, each paying that amount, in a market-rate unit.<\/p>\n
She voted that day, she said, because she was \u201ctired of feeling like the city was pushing me out.\u201d And, like many, she backed Zohran Mamdani \u2014 the Assembly member who ran on rent freezes for stabilized homes, tenant protections and a promise to, as she put it, \u201cfight the right people.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Zohran Mamdani ran on a campaign of making New York City more affordable, which resonated with a number of local voters. Getty Images<\/p>\n
![\"Among](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/42b57c95a28a7c9e009547eafa85f839.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Among his pledges: freezing rents for stabilized units. Michael Nigro<\/p>\n
![\"Reigning](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8568acec512550a1fd12878aadd0e92b.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Reigning in the city\u2019s high costs of living sent voters to the polls in droves \u2014 but landlords of stabilized buildings fear a brutal reality on their end. Michael Nigro<\/p>\n
Mamdani won<\/a> by 50.4% of the vote that day \u2014 including 78% of voters under age 30, and 66% of those between ages 30 to 44 \u2014 regardless of the fact that his proposals were broad, with little to no details behind them. They even had little to no support from fellow Democrat, Gov. Kathy Hochul, who nevertheless endorsed him.<\/p>\n What his victory did show was that there\u2019s an affordability crisis in the city, and voters were eager to support anyone who pledged to bring the notoriously high costs of living under control.<\/p>\n The affordability crisis has been building in large part since late 2021 \u2014 the tail end of Bill de Blasio\u2019s tenure as mayor. Following mass vacancies and discounts<\/a> during the pandemic, rents began soaring<\/a> as COVID concessions ended that autumn. They\u2019ve only grown steeper.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a real roller coaster,\u201d appraiser Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel, a real estate appraiser, told The Post. \u201cRents zoomed back after their correction in 2020, surged in 2021 and 2022, went up again significantly in 2023 and in 2025 went up even more.\u201d<\/p>\n Douglas Elliman\u2019s latest market report, which Miller authors, shows just how little slack remains.<\/p>\n The average rent in Manhattan hit an all-time high<\/a> at a staggering $5,651 per month in October \u2014 up 9.4% year-over-year. Meanwhile, rental inventory is down 6.9% from last year. In Manhattan, inventory is down for the 19th consecutive month.<\/p>\n \u201cSalaries are not rising as fast as rents are,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAt some point the affordability becomes completely unmanageable for most [residents]. We\u2019re not there yet and I suspect we\u2019re probably a few years away from that. But that\u2019s the trajectory at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Against this backdrop, Mamdani surged in the polls. He promised to freeze rents in roughly a million stabilized apartments and borrow $70 billion to build<\/a> 200,000 permanently affordable units over the next decade.<\/p>\n Julia Musilli, who resides in Brooklyn with roommates, voted for Mamdani due to his pledge for making New York more affordable. Stefano Giovannini for N.Y. Post<\/p>\n She\u2019s responsible for paying thousands per month in rent and student loans \u2014 all after losing her production job over the summer. Stefano Giovannini for N.Y. Post<\/p>\n Musilli said her friends are also concerned about their financial situations as costs in general have risen. Stefano Giovannini for N.Y. Post<\/p>\n \u201cI voted for Mamdani mostly because of his rent freeze plan and overall promise to make the city more affordable,\u201d said 24-year-old Julia Musilli, a freelance content creator and social media manager who lives in Williamsburg with two roommates.<\/p>\n She lost her production job in July, but still has to pay $1,550 in rent and an additional $1,550 monthly for student loans. There is a way to make it work, but it\u2019s tight.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of side hustles and social media bringing income in, so that definitely helps,\u201d she said, adding that each month she can bring in up to $5,000, but saving money these days \u2014 as opposed to when she had a salaried position \u2014 is more challenging. Her friends, she says, are in the same boat.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think that everybody is stressed about it, and everybody\u2019s thinking about it all the time,\u201d she said of their financial well-being.<\/p>\n Samir Lavingia, 31, a Fordham University law student, voted for Mamdani in support of his policies promoting more housing construction in the city. He worked for Google and Twitter before going back to school. During that time he lived in a Union Square apartment where his rent jumped to $4,900 from $3,600 in a two-year span.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no way I can afford that,\u201d he recalled. So he had to decamp for Midtown, where he now pays $4,050 \u2014 up from $3,700 in 2023 when he moved in. Beyond the roller-coaster pricing, he had to deal with an exhausting search at a time of low inventory.<\/p>\n Samir Lavingia, who studies law at Fordham University, saw a large rent increase over a two-year span while living in his former apartment. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n He moved to Midtown in 2023, and subsequent years have seen his rent increase. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cI will say that I definitely cried at my desk when I was looking for apartments, because it was just really hard to find something within my budget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The budget has also been cramped for 48-year-old Marcela M., who also declined to provide her full name for reasons of privacy, a mother living with her 10-year-old son \u2014 and a roommate \u2014 in Bushwick. She\u2019s separated from her husband, who lives in another apartment with a roommate, and is an artist whose income dropped to $30,000 this year from roughly $55,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cYou choose to live in New York because of the people, because of how special it is, how open-minded it is,\u201d she said. \u201cYou find friends that really care about you and a community that understands you \u2026 It\u2019s my home. But it\u2019s become very expensive,\u201d she told The Post.<\/p>\n As for her physical home, it\u2019s a rent-stabilized two-bedroom railroad (with a makeshift wall that gives her son his own room) for which she pays $1,750 per month.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end, it\u2019s a lot of what I spend and it\u2019s not that much what I make,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n NY Post Design<\/p>\n But while the tenants struggling to pay rent embrace Mamdani\u2019s proposal, city landlords who manage rent-stabilized housing \u2014 which accounts for 42% of rentals in New York City \u2014 are sounding the alarm. So much so that many are trying to sell at shockingly low prices and get out.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a money loser to own a rent-stabilized building,\u201d said Charles Olson, a broker with Keller Williams Realty Empire in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n Right now, he\u2019s marketing a massive 30-unit, 22,200-square-foot rent-stabilized property at the edge of Crown Heights for $2.27 million. For contrast, a nearby three-bedroom condo recently listed for $2.29 million.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know that landlords who own rent-stabilized buildings are restricted in how much they can raise their rents, but the cost of inflation is far outstripping their ability to keep up with the cost of repairs,\u201d he added. \u201cThe cost of lumber, the cost of labor, everything is going up.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why a number of rent-stabilized buildings are now for sale at bargain prices \u2014 landlords want out.<\/p>\n This stabilized property in Brooklyn asks $1.56 million, according to its StreetEasy listing.<\/p>\n This stabilized property, now asking $1.54 million, has seen multiple discounts, StreetEasy also shows.<\/p>\n In affluent Park Slope, an eight-unit stabilized property asks $1.56 million. At 7,208 square feet, that breaks down to $217 per square foot \u2014 far below Brooklyn\u2019s overall average of $1,075 per-square-foot cost for condos and $893 for one- to three-family homes, according to third quarter Douglas Elliman numbers.<\/p>\n Another sprawling 5,600-square-foot building located nearby listed in July for $1.83 million.<\/p>\n Meanwhile other buildings in the area are slashing their prices \u2014 a 5,000-square-foot building with six units recently lowered its asking price to $1.75 million from $1.79 million. And another 6,000-square-foot stabilized building two blocks from it just saw its third price cut to $1.55 million from the original price of $1.59 million.<\/p>\n \u201cMost landlords are walking away from [their buildings],\u201d said landlord Adrian Lawrence. He has an edifice, which he co-owns with family members, that is being marketed for sale by Olson. \u201cThey\u2019re not making a profit and they\u2019re not going [to] put their life savings and investments into these buildings without the ability to make back the money with some profitability.\u201d<\/p>\n Now asking $1.75 million for sale, this Brooklyn building originally listed for $1.79 million.<\/p>\n A six-family stabilized rental, also in Brooklyn, listed for $1.83 million in July.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rent freeze, I think, is ill-conceived,\u201d he added. \u201cIf you tell a person they can\u2019t increase rents in a one- to two-year period, that is dangerous because the costs are rising.\u201d<\/p>\n Issues surrounding the financial well-being of stabilized units predate Mamdani\u2019s mayoral proposals \u2014 and have worsened during successive Democratic administrations. At least 50,000<\/a> city rent-stabilized homes now sit vacant \u2014 an exponential rise from the 5,000 kept empty in 2019.<\/p>\n The mounting vacancies trace back to that year\u2019s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act. It eliminated landlords\u2019 ability to raise rents when tenants moved out, which allowed them to recover costs from making renovations for a new renter\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n These days, landlords told The Post, it doesn\u2019t make sense to pay these renovation costs should stabilized rents be frozen in place.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are more and more of these rent-stabilized apartments disappearing from the market because the landlords can\u2019t get them into a condition that they can rent them in,\u201d said Olson.<\/p>\n And, say critics, it will get worse.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have units coming offline in the middle of a housing crisis to me is a policy failure,\u201d said Kenny Burgos. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n After hitting record lows during the coronavirus pandemic, New York City rentals have continued to reach record highs over the past four years. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an issue that will perpetuate and compound if nothing is done. To have units coming offline in the middle of a housing crisis to me is a policy failure,\u201d said Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing and irresponsible. We have units we can bring back online.\u201d<\/p>\n Adding to the issues for rent-stabilized property owners: Democrat-passed measures on utility regulation and climate change, including a 2019 law<\/a> requiring buildings over\u00a025,000\u00a0square feet to swap oil and gas-fired heating systems for electric heat pumps in order to slash emissions\u00a040% by the end of this decade.<\/p>\n Critics say this will only make costs balloon further.<\/p>\n \u201cFor decades, the New York City government has passed unfunded mandates that raise rents,\u201d Burgos added. \u201cThey just never admit that they are the ones causing the city to be unaffordable. Or in the case of rent-stabilized housing, they are the ones causing buildings to go bankrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n Just last month, a new report from a nonprofit estimated that Mamdani would need to give landlords a billion-dollar bailout<\/a> so they don\u2019t default on their mortgages.<\/p>\n Burgos added, \u201cWell-intentioned laws to inspect boilers, reduce greenhouse gases or require facade work on aging buildings come with high costs. And when a building\u2019s rent revenue is capped, those costs are either paid by deferring other maintenance or simply can\u2019t get done. It is a key factor in the current fiscal distress gripping regulated housing.\u201d<\/p>\n As for landlord profits, while average net operating income was up 8% between 2022 and 2023, according to the Income and Expense Study<\/a> (with Manhattan-based landlords making the biggest profits and those in The Bronx barely breaking even), 2025 paints a different story.<\/p>\n Data provided by the Small Property Owners of New York shows The Bronx has some buildings with rent-stabilized units in current danger of default. One, a 22-unit property, faces a nearly $82,000 annual loss because rents are too low to keep up with rising costs.<\/p>\n There are a number of apartment buildings in The Bronx at risk of default, according to data provided to The Post. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n![\"Julia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2bd110d9a23e6dd375d8323ad3b3ddf0.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"She\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/9dd6ba18ee0fc99a23f00b59153c7ddc.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Musilli](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dba69e9c21009c620d49be3aed6073ad.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Samir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/f6b1a419e0fbdd6d3ab72530de6fb223.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"He](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/c21b0aed2640d8b63bcd46271655f7d0.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"NY](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/298568d4ad6f6c0bd2c3b0d693bd4245.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/926de55b64a660caf02fe513c0f6249a.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/abfbb880a852e1623c2162aa3fbad084.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Now](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/e28454f1d2430366e812e6d0a9791733.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1a0918c2f38cfe0ff9dcf1304f5ab1e7.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"\u201cTo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/b3547d23b48053e956adb1de51f7b120.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"After](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/47d26fa14edd85aacb36f9aa60933603.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/b58396de3b6d897fe09624705d036d6e.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
![\"Mandani](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/345fb9e4b7c61e17e8c50b39c405cee1.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n