A rent freeze or small increase? RGB preliminary vote leaves room for both
- RGB approved ranges of 0 to 2 percent for one-year leases and 0 to 4 percent for two-year leases
- A rent freeze was a core campaign promise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s affordability agenda
Renters rallied before the vote to show support for a rent freeze for NYC’s one million rent-stabilized units.
Karya Schanilec for Tenant Bloc
It’s not yet clear if New York City’s 2.4 million rent-stabilized tenants will get a rent freeze this summer.
A preliminary vote on Thursday night by the Rent Guidelines Board, a nine-member group that sets rent caps on new leases and renewals, supported both freezes and small increases, including the potential for the first rent freeze on two-year leases. The board approved ranges of 0 to 2 percent for one-year leases and 0 to 4 percent for two-year leases.
The board met at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in Long Island City in front of a vocal crowd—as it usually does every year. Renters rallied before the vote to show support for a rent freeze for NYC’s one million rent-stabilized units, joined by labor unions and cab drivers from NYC Taxi Workers Alliance who blocked traffic to protect the crowd.
Seven members of the RGB board voted in favor of the final proposal, one landlord representative voted against it, and one landlord representative abstained.
Three board members initially voted in favor of a rent reduction, proposing -3 percent to 0 percent for one-year leases as well as reductions on two-year leases. This proposal did not have enough votes to pass.
The final vote is set for June 25th.
Last July, the RGB approved increases of up to 3 percent for one-year leases and up to 4.5 percent on two-year leases.
Any increases or freezes the board approves this summer will go into effect for leases that begin on or after Oct. 1st, 2026 through Sept. 30th, 2027.
Rent freezes most recently occurred under Mayor Bill de Blasio, when the board voted to freeze rent increases three times, including in 2020 during the pandemic.
Mamdani’s affordability agenda
A rent freeze was a core campaign promise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s affordability agenda that helped put him in office.
With five new members, mayoral appointees dominate the Rent Guidelines Board. The board has two tenant and two property owner representatives, so the five members appointed by the mayor who represent the public tend to sway the vote.
“Organized tenants helped put Zohran Mamdani in office, and organized tenants will ensure the Rent Guidelines Board delivers on a promise supported by over one million New Yorkers. A rent freeze on one- and two-year leases is a common-sense intervention supported by the data and by tenants who make up the majority of New York City," said Sumathy Kumar, director of NYS Tenant Bloc, in a statement.
Response from small landlords
To small landlords, Thursday’s preliminary vote was “reckless and irresponsible,” said Ann Korchak, board president of Small Property Owners of New York (SPONY) in a statement.
“The RGB is violating its statutory mandate of objectively analyzing relevant data and basing their rent adjustments on the health, preservation and viability of rent-stabilized housing,” she said.
She characterized the board as surrendering to City’s Hall’s political pressure and said the vote
“ignores the severe economic realities of mom-and-pop, generational, immigrant small property owners whose capped rent streams make it impossible to keep pace with skyrocketing property tax, insurance, utility, repair, and all other operating costs.”
SPONY want to see separate rent guidelines for buildings constructed before 1973 to prevent older properties from falling farther into economic distress and into the hands of predatory landlords, Korchak said.
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