Rent board approves increases of 3 to 4.5 percent for rent-stabilized units

By a vote of 5-4, the Rent Guidelines Board last night approved increases up to 3 percent for one-year leases and up to 4.5 percent on two-year leases.The decision impacts New York City’s nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments and applies to new leases and renewals occurring on or after Oct. 1st, 2025 through Sept. 30th, 2026. The board had considered ranges of 1.75 to 4.75 percent for one-year leases and 3.75 to 7.75 percent for two-year leases. The latter range was lowered 1 percent during a rare revote in May from 4.75 to 7.75 percent.More than 100 tenants gathered outside the RGB’s final vote on Monday evening at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem to demand that the board enact no increases and freeze the rent—a campaign slogan for Queens State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, the first mayoral candidate to support a rent freeze.Mamdani, the winner of the Democratic primary, has also pledged to freeze the rent for “all four years of his administration.”A celebratory moodThe mood outside where the vote was being held was celebratory, thanks to Mamdani’s victory, despite expectations that the mayoral-appointed board would proceed with raising rents for the fourth year in a row."Real estate is mad. Eric Adams is mad," said Joanne Grell, a rent-stabilized tenant in the Bronx, member of the NYS Tenant Bloc, and co-chair of the Freeze the Rent Campaign, referring to Mamdani’s win."As a tenant, I don't have to follow the data to know a rent freeze is necessary, because I am the data," said Esteban Giron, a tenant organizer with Crown Heights Tenants Union.However, the 5-4 vote was met with boos and jeers from tenants in the audience. Tenant board member Adan Soltren delivered a scathing critique of the vote."I've realized in this fourth season that this board does not value affordability. It doesn't in any meaningful way," Soltren said. "We as a board have co-signed the normalization of unaffordability, housing insecurity, and abject poverty." Caption Zohran Mamdani said that “even a supposedly modest rent hike in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis will push New Yorkers out of their homes." Credit Celia Young for Brick Underground Caption NYC Comptroller and recent mayoral candidate Brad Lander also joined calls for a rent freeze.  Credit Celia Young for Brick Underground ‘A moment for a rent freeze’NYC Comptroller and recent mayoral candidate Brad Lander stopped by ahead of the meeting to call for a rent freeze. Like Mamdani, he wants new members to be selected for the nine-person board."If there was ever a moment for a rent freeze, it is right now," Lander said. "And if they don't do it, we can get rid of this RBG," and get a new one next year.In a statement prior to the vote, Cea Weaver, director of the New York State Tenant Bloc, said that Mayor Adams is “is squeezing in one last rent hike for his real estate donors on his way out the door.”Weaver said her group is dedicated to organizing NYC tenants to elect Mamdani in November to “win the rent freeze tenants so desperately need.” Since February, the NYS Tenant Bloc has organized more than 20,000 tenants to pledge to vote only for a mayor who will freeze the rent. An analysis from the Community Service Society found that a rent freeze would save New Yorkers an average of nearly $600 per month.In a statement, Mamdani said that “even a supposedly modest rent hike in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis will push New Yorkers out of their homes. But as voters showed last Tuesday, New Yorkers are ready for a city government that lowers costs instead of padding real estate profits. Change is coming.”The response from landlordsLandlord groups want to see more proportional rent increases in the future.James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, the real estate trade association, said the “adjustments by RGB, while less than the increase in costs imposed on owners, are a necessary step toward preserving the long-term health of our housing stock.”He urged policymakers to consider “broader data-driven solutions that ensure rent-stabilized units remain both affordable and financially sustainable for the long term.”Ann Korchak, board president of Small Property Owners of New York, a landlord advocacy organization, made a similar argument.“The RGB’s independent public members, like their predecessors, have failed small building owners,” Korchak said. “We needed rent increases proportional with the 6.3 percent surge in building operating costs presented in the RGB’s own reports.”Korchak called for separate, higher rent increases for apartment leases in small economically distressed buildings with high numbers of rent-stabilized apartments. This housing “provide[s] the bulk of affordable housing in working class, multicultural, immigrant neighborhoods throughout the outer boroughs and upper and lower Manhattan.”Increases on par with market-rate unitsThe rent increase seems to be in line with what market-rate renters are seeing.Eighty percent of market-rate lease renewals came with rent increase of less than 5 percent in 2024, according to data from apartment listing and review platform openigloo. Only 8 percent exceeded rent increases of 10 percent, down from 12 percent before the implementation of Good Cause eviction legislation, which protects many market units from extreme rent hikes.Speaking to Brick Underground prior to the vote, Allia Mohamed, openigloo co-founder and CEO, had predicted a vote at the lower end of the range.Still, she said, “renters are struggling and can’t withstand rent increases. This debate that happens every single year and no one ever walks away happy. It should make us reflect on how RGB boards votes,” Mohamed said.Applying the same rate to every rent-stabilized unit doesn’t make sense anymore. She would like to see rent increases based on data and context. “With enough political will there could be increases based on portfolios,” she said.“A luxury rent-stabilized building in Hudson Yards should not get the same increase as a distressed building in Queens,” Mohamed added.A major issue in the mayor’s raceMamdani’s promise to freeze has set off alarm bells in the real estate industry. Scott Mollen, partner in the litigation department at law firm Herrick, and a former RGB chair under Mayor Ed Koch, told Brick that Mamdani's pledge is a form of political pressure.While board members are appointed by the mayor, “once they agree to accept the position, they are obligated to consider several factors that impact rent-stabilized housing,” Mollen said. “To tell a RGB board before they have carried out their statutory duties to vote to freeze rent is improper,” he said.During his role as RGB chair, “I never received any pressure or effort to reach a particular decision. No one in city hall tried to put their finger on their scale,” he said.A freeze could not happen this yearAs Brick has previously reported, enacting a rent freeze requires several steps, so stabilized tenants could not see their rent frozen before October 2026.That’s because a new mayor wouldn’t be able to appoint members to the nine-person board until they take office in January 2026. An RGB vote on rent adjustments would occur over the summer.Any rent increases or freeze would go into effect for leases being renewed and vacancies occurring on or after Oct. 1st, 2026 through Sept. 30th, 2027.—Jennifer White Karp contributed reporting and writing to this article.You Might Also Like