Did TikTok spare renters from broker fees?
Chi Ossé is the City Council’s first Gen Z member, and he took a very Gen Z approach to building support for his broker-fee bill, the Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses, or FARE Act. He posted quick videos on TikTok breaking down the bill and explaining why it was needed. One even featured actress and comedian Ilana Glazer.
“We’re low-key passing this bill because of TikTok,” he said during a rally ahead of the City Council’s passage of the legislation, which bars rental agents from collecting commissions from renters unless they are hired by the renter. Today, renters typically pay the broker fee, usually 15 percent of the annual rent.
Ossé said he used ChatGPT to come up with the bill’s name. Not sure if that was a joke, but it seems plausible.
As a Millennial who mostly experiences TikTok through recycled videos on Instagram or whatever my younger sisters text me, I’ll admit to being a little out of my depth. But it was apparent even to me that the Council member’s videos were getting noticed.
The videos obviously weren’t solely responsible for the bill’s passage — it was a popular measure advanced at the right time — but they raised its profile and helped rebrand it from a “broker fee ban” to a homophone for “fair.”
After the vote, Ossé told me that a “huge reason” Council member Keith Powers’ bill to cap broker fees in 2019 stalled out was that real estate brokers showed up to the hearing in droves.
“We watched back a lot of the tapes from that hearing, and it was packed with brokers,” he said. “When it comes to a controversial bill like this, I know that the speaker is put into a very difficult situation of hearing from members, as well as the industry.”
This year, the hearing drew a sizable and energetic crowd organized by the Real Estate Board of New York and the New York State Association of Realtors, though seemingly short of the 1,500 who had RSVP’d.
Ossé said the TikTok videos helped reach more people, who called their Council members or showed up to the hearing in June to support the measure. The bill was secured 33 sponsors and passed 42-8, a veto-proof majority. Many City Council members are renters, as are their constituents.
“It made this bill a public quarrel between what we were trying to do on the tenants’ side and what the real estate side was trying to do,” Ossé said. “Without the public’s engagement on this, through the medium of social media, I don’t think we’d be here today.”
He also credited the Council’s Progressive Caucus for getting it over the finish line. He and progressive leaders held up the bill as the kind of legislation New Yorkers can expect from progressives, as Democrats blame each other for the amount of ground President-elect Trump gained throughout the city.
Council member Sandy Nurse, co-chair of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, told the crowd not to listen to “the bullshit that is being said about the progressive movement.”
“We do have the power, and there is so much tenant power right now, present at City Hall,” she said. “We are going to win against the real estate lobby.”
Back to that veto-proof majority: The mayor has been critical of the measure, and yesterday echoed REBNY’s concerns that the bill will cause landlords to increase rents. He has not said whether he will veto the bill, and City Hall would not provide an update Wednesday.
“From day one, the Adams administration has been laser focused on building our way out of the housing crisis — creating more affordable housing for New Yorkers in need and empowering tenants by holding bad actors accountable,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement. “We are closely watching this bill, and look forward to working with the Council to make this city more affordable for New Yorkers.”
Though the statement does not mention the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity by name, it does underscore that the administration is trying to get that reform through the Council. Vetoing a pro-tenant bill passed by a supermajority probably would not help the mayor in City of Yes negotiations. But we’ll see!
What we’re thinking about: City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams says negotiations over the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity are ongoing and that the body is still sifting through concerns over the proposal. What kind of investments will the City Council secure from City Hall to pass it? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Because so many newspapers in New Jersey have ended their print editions (most recently the Star-Ledger and its affiliate publications), or ceased operating altogether, the state will likely need to change its rules requiring that legal notices appear in print newspapers, Politico reports. One pending bill would allow such notices to be published by online news organizations.
Elsewhere in New York…
— Gov. Kathy Hochul is relaunching congestion pricing with a reduced tolling plan, Gothamist reports. Under the new plan, the base toll for passenger cars would be $9, down from the previously proposed $15. “Gov. Hochul paused congestion pricing because a daily $15 toll was too much for hard-working New Yorkers in this economic climate,” a spokesperson for the governor said in a statement. “Tomorrow, the governor will announce the path forward to fund mass transit, unclog our streets and improve public health by reducing air pollution.”
— Police arrested a volunteer firefighter on charges that he intentionally set a brush fire on Long Island, NBC New York reports. Officials say Jonathan Quiles, 20, admitted to starting the blaze in Medford.
— Amtrak service was disrupted for nearly 24 hours by a brush fire in the Bronx and downed wires near Philadelphia, the New York Times reports. Service resumed Wednesday afternoon with delays.
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Wednesday was $10.5 million for a 4,816-square-foot condominium unit at 12 East 13th Street in Greenwich Village. Rose Franco and Kelly Jacoutot of Douglas Elliman had the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale of the day was $13.5 million for a 104,000-square-foot apartment building at 34-44 77th Street in Jackson Heights. Align Management sold the 120-unit property to Benedict Realty Group.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $15.5 million for a 5,525-square-foot co-op at 1016 Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side. Bespoke Real Estate has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building application filed was a proposed 11,060-square-foot, six-story residential project at 269 Water Street in the Fulton/Seaport neighborhood. S M Tam Architect filed the permit. — Matthew Elo