Vacant Rent-Stabilized Apartment Rate Climbs in New York

Vacant rent-stabilized apartments in New York City appear to be on the rise, adding another wrinkle to the increasingly contentious debate over the future of the city’s regulated housing stock.

About 57,000 rent-stabilized apartments sat vacant last year, representing roughly 5.6 percent of the city’s approximately 1 million stabilized units, according to landlord filings obtained by The City Reporter through a Freedom of Information Law request. The latest figures mark an increase from the 3.7 percent reported in 2016,

The vacancy rate briefly jumped to roughly 7 percent in 2021, when the pandemic emptied neighborhoods across the five boroughs. While Manhattan has largely returned to pre-pandemic vacancy levels, every other borough posted higher vacancy rates last year than they did nearly a decade earlier.

The data offers only a snapshot. Landlords report vacant units to the state each April, but the filings do not explain why apartments are empty or whether they are undergoing renovations, tied up between tenants or simply being held off the market.

The state’s Division of Homes and Community Renewal said vacant registrations may also include newly completed buildings that have not yet been fully leased.

Still, the numbers arrive as owners of aging rent-stabilized buildings continue warning that mounting operating costs and limits on rent increases are making it increasingly difficult to return apartments to service. The issue is especially acute in older outer-borough properties, where rents often lag well behind Manhattan levels while insurance, taxes and construction costs continue climbing.

Landlords blame the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, which sharply curtailed vacancy-related rent increases and limited owners’ ability to recover renovation costs.

With the Rent Guidelines Board recently approving a two-year rent freeze for stabilized apartments, owners argue that the economics have become even more challenging.

Housing advocates caution against drawing sweeping conclusions from the vacancy data alone. Analysts note that some level of vacancy is expected as tenants move, apartments change hands and units undergo repairs. Others point to a backlog of Housing Court cases following the pandemic eviction moratorium as another factor contributing to the higher vacancy count.

The broader picture remains dire for landlords. Research from the NYU Furman Center shows older buildings with overwhelmingly rent-stabilized units have seen inflation-adjusted incomes decline since 2019, even as expenses have risen.

— Holden Walter-Warner