When New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board approves a rent increase, it’s for every single unit in the affordable housing stock. What if there’s a more nuanced system?
A growing chorus of housing insiders and organizations are asking the RGB to consider applying different increases for different buildings. The New York Apartment Association and the Small Property Owners of New York have both advocated for differentiating allowable rent increases depending on building characteristics like age.
The Mamdani administration seems to be listening.
At The Real Deal’s NYC Forum, one of the mayor’s top housing officials acknowledged that the current process is flawed.
“The rent-stabilized stock is very diverse and the RGB increases are a very blunt tool,” Leila Bozorg, deputy mayor for housing, said at the event.
Bozorg sat down with TRD columnist Eric Engquist and Monadnock Development’s Kirk Goodrich to discuss the state of housing in New York City — especially rent-stabilized developments. Naturally, the topic turned to rent increases and Mayor Mamdani’s pledge to freeze rent-stabilized rent increases.
Though Bozorg acknowledged the RGB’s pitfalls, she did not immediately back a board decision that would allow different buildings to raise the rent by different percentages. Instead, Bozorg said the city will need to invest in other programs or initiatives to help owners.
“You really need to look more holistically at what are the types of tools that we can bring to the table to actually support owners in addressing the costs that have gone up,” Bozorg said. She continued to reference the city’s plan to back an insurance program for affordable and rent-stabilized buildings.
Both sides of the rent increase debate — the Mamdani administration and landlords — are starting to acknowledge inconvenient truths. The mayor’s office recognizes that a growing portion of the rent-stabilized housing stock is in distress, with owners unable to cover expenses and debt. Landlord groups meanwhile have conceded that a real rent hike of the size they’d like is not on the table.
In advocating for at least an increase on older buildings, landlord groups argue that the age of a building changes how it should be treated. Buildings built prior to 1974 were brought into rent stabilization unwillingly. Those buildings also have more maintenance needs. Newer buildings with rent-stabilized units allowed them to be regulated in general in return for property tax abatements.
“The future viability of older rent-stabilized housing is dependent on ‘split’ rent orders that will help mom-and-pop, mostly immigrant and generational owners operate and maintain their older buildings and house millions of New Yorkers,” Ann Korchak, board president of the Small Property Owners of New York, said in a statement.
Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association, asked the board to think creatively in recent testimony.
He laid out the financial situations of two buildings: one built before 1973 and one built after.
“One of those buildings needs a meaningful rent adjustment,” Burgos told the board. “The other doesn’t.”
Despite the softened tone from landlord groups, Mayor Zohran Mamdani ran on four years of rent freezes in rent-stabilized apartments. Any increases would likely be seen by his base as a betrayal.
The board is set to vote preliminarily on rent increases Thursday evening, with a final vote in June.
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