Dina Levy

Dina Levy hasn’t exactly bathed in the real estate spotlight. 

As the senior vice president of single-family and community development with the state’s Division of Homes and Community Renewal, she oversaw the state’s mortgage agency, managing housing grants and leading a program upstate for the manufacturing of low-cost homes.

But Levy is set to be scrutinized much more after Mayor Zohran Mamdani named her commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, instantly catapulting her standing in city real estate circles.

Levy will take control of an agency with a $2 billion budget and a direct connection to Mamdani’s biggest campaign promises; HPD finances income-restricted housing developments and funds the preservation of existing affordable units.

How Levy takes advantage of the package of land-use changes ushered in by Eric Adams’ City of Yes, which allow for larger construction and square-footage bonuses tied to affordable unit volume, could prove critical to the overarching success or failure of Mamdani’s first term.