The first public hearing of the board that Mayor Zohran Mamdani reshaped earlier this year quickly evolved into an argument over whether those headline gains
Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a video explaining the Rent Guidelines Board process ahead of the panel’s first public meeting Thursday.opened this year’s rent-setting season Thursday with a new financial report showing landlord income rising for a third straight year citywide — and disagreements about what that really means.
earlier this year quickly evolved into an argument over whether those headline gains say much about the older, fully rent-stabilized buildings at the center of the city’s housing debate., based on nearly 17,800 buildings and more than 805,000 apartments, found that net operating income, or NOI, rose 6.2% from 2023 to 2024 for buildings with at least one rent-stabilized unit. Collected rent rose 4.8%, total income rose 4.9%, operating costs rose 4.2%, and the share of buildings classified as distressed fell slightly to 9.2%.But the same report also pointed to a weaker picture in buildings that more closely resemble the traditional stabilized stock. NOI growth fell as buildings became more heavily stabilized: 4.0% in buildings that were at least 50% stabilized, 3.5% in those at least 80% stabilized and 2.4% in 100% stabilized buildings. Among pre-1974 buildings that were fully stabilized, NOI rose 1.4% citywide.by framing it as the first in a series of meetings to determine lease adjustments for rent-stabilized units with leases beginning or renewing between Oct. 1, 2026, and Sept. 30, 2027. The board will meet again on April 9, when members are scheduled to hear the annual operating-cost index and mortgage survey, before holding two additional public meetings ahead of a preliminary vote on lease adjustments set for May 7. More hearings will follow before a final decision is made in late June. New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board opened this year’s rent-setting season Thursday with a new financial report showing landlord income rising for a third straight year citywide — and disagreements about what that really means., urging both tenants and landlords to participate in the hearings, but stopped short of explicitly renewing his campaign call for a rent freeze.Noting that he appointed six members earlier this year, the mayor stressed that the RGB is an independent body that weighs evidence before making its decisions. Mamdani was the first candidate in last year’s mayoral race to commit to a rent freeze, making it a cornerstone of his affordability message. Under former Mayor Eric Adams, the board approved rent increases each year, totaling about 12% over four years; under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, it froze rents three times.The RGB members said the study now breaks out buildings by construction date and by the share of stabilized units, an attempt to address long-running concerns that the citywide averages blur together very different kinds of housing. The report covers properties with as little as one stabilized unit, excludes most residential-only buildings with fewer than 11 units from the underlying RPIE filings and includes revenue beyond apartment rent. Commercial and ancillary income accounted for 11.1% of total owner income in 2024. Mark Willis of the NYU Furman Center urged the board to go further, arguing that policymakers need a clearer picture of the rent-stabilized stock’s most vulnerable segments. He said older “legacy” buildings with 90% or more stabilized units, along with income-restricted post-1973 properties, should be analyzed separately because they derive nearly all of their residential income from stabilized apartments. Willis also challenged the quality of the underlying income-and-expense data, saying he was skeptical the reported NOI figures fully capture the real pressure owners face. That led to a back-and-forth over methodology, with Willis and board members debating whether the figures reflect raw owner-reported data or expense data adjusted by the Department of Finance. RGB representatives said the study relies mostly on raw data, though some members suggested the issue could come up again at a later hearing. Community Service Society housing policy analysts Oksana Mironova and Samuel Stein shifted the focus to tenants. Drawing on survey data, they told the board that 434,300 low-income New Yorkers live in regulated apartments, more than in any other housing category. They said two-thirds of low-income rent-stabilized tenants cannot make ends meet or are barely getting by, and 55% said they could not cover a $400 unexpected expense. Mironova and Stein also argued that rent stabilization is not just about price, but about stability. They said tenants in stabilized apartments are more likely to remain in their neighborhoods over time, and framed that security of tenure as a kind of renter analog to homeownership. Emily Eisner of the Fiscal Policy Institute offered a broader argument for restraint on rents, describing regulation as a price-stabilization tool in a city shaped by extreme housing scarcity. She argued that some of the sector’s financial distress may reflect debt loads and valuations built on pre-2019 expectations about future rent growth, rather than current operating costs alone.Outside the hearing room, Thursday’s report immediately drew sharply different readings from landlord and tenant groups. Small Property Owners of New York, which represents many smaller landlords, said the board’s preferred metric masked the reality facing older buildings. “NOI is a flawed metric that presents a grossly inaccurate representation of the financial realities of small property owners,” SPONY President Ann Korchak said in a statement. She said NOI “doesn’t factor in mortgage debt, costly apartment improvements, and major capital expenses” and called for “a more accurate and transparent analysis that uses more timely information and reflects the economic distress of small property owners.” REBNY President James Whelan said the board’s “statutorily mandated approach obscures data that shows continuing distress among larger segments of the rent-regulated stock,” including “declining operating income, more housing violations, and lower assessments among buildings with large percentages of rent-regulated units.” He added that if the board follows its legal mandate, “it will take this reality into account in its final determination.” Tenant groups argued the same report showed the board had little justification for another rent increase. “Tenants are winning our rent freeze,” Sumathy Kumar, director of NYS Tenant Bloc, said in a statement. “Landlord incomes continue to rise while tenant wages stay stagnant and the cost of everything from food to transportation keeps going up.” The Legal Aid Society struck a similar note, saying the report showed landlords “continue to earn steady profits,” even as tenants face a historic affordability crunch. “A freeze on rents for all tenants in stabilized units is the clear path forward,” the group said, adding that working-class tenants “must not be asked to bear the cost of yet another rent hike when today’s report proves unequivocally that an increase is not presently needed.” MAYOR MAMDANI’S FIRST 50 DAYS: Big ambitions, but bigger budget problems, define his first weeks in officeLocal elected officials skittish on report that Trump could support Penn Station plan with a new MSG built across streetcase could be dismissed if the government won’t allow him to pay his attorneys, court saysAt The Stand, a perfect pour meets a hilarious punchline
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