Rent freeze is “abysmal economics”: OPINION

"A shriveled job market is not a crisis that the city’s rent rules were ever meant to address."

WEEKENDEDITION Bill de Blasio is gearing up for a battle with the Rent Guidelines Board over a rent freeze on New York’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. And now landlords who are against the measure have found an ally in the slumlord-shaming pages of the New York Daily News. A recent editorial in the Daily News describes de Blasio’s plan to freeze rents as “perfect politics — and abysmal economics.”

Despite the fact that the majority of rent-stabilized tenants spend more than one-third of their modest incomes on rent, the paper argues that the city’s rent rules were never meant to address a dismal job market.

Instead, the Rent Guidelines Board must assess the costs landlords bear in running their buildings.

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“Approved rent hikes have recently hovered around 3 percent annually, far behind the pace of fuel, tax and utility costs. As one example, real estate taxes, usually the biggest cost for landlords, increased 5 percent in the last year,” the editorial reads.

The board is currently weighing an increase between zero and 3 percent for one-year leases and of 0.5 percent to 4.5 percent for two-year leases.

“They only need look at the city’s crumbling public housing projects to see what happens when a landlord gets too little money coming in to keep buildings from falling apart,” the paper writes. [NYDN] Christopher Cameron

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Rent freeze is “abysmal economics”: OPINION

"A shriveled job market is not a crisis that the city’s rent rules were ever meant to address."

WEEKENDEDITION Bill de Blasio is gearing up for a battle with the Rent Guidelines Board over a rent freeze on New York’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. And now landlords who are against the measure have found an ally in the slumlord-shaming pages of the New York Daily News. A recent editorial in the Daily News describes de Blasio’s plan to freeze rents as “perfect politics — and abysmal economics.”

Despite the fact that the majority of rent-stabilized tenants spend more than one-third of their modest incomes on rent, the paper argues that the city’s rent rules were never meant to address a dismal job market.

Instead, the Rent Guidelines Board must assess the costs landlords bear in running their buildings.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

By signing up, you agree to TheRealDeal Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

“Approved rent hikes have recently hovered around 3 percent annually, far behind the pace of fuel, tax and utility costs. As one example, real estate taxes, usually the biggest cost for landlords, increased 5 percent in the last year,” the editorial reads.

The board is currently weighing an increase between zero and 3 percent for one-year leases and of 0.5 percent to 4.5 percent for two-year leases.

“They only need look at the city’s crumbling public housing projects to see what happens when a landlord gets too little money coming in to keep buildings from falling apart,” the paper writes. [NYDN] Christopher Cameron

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