A rent freeze? Not this year.
The Rent Guidelines board voted Monday night on rent increases for about one million rent-stabilized apartments of up to 3% for one-year leases and 4.5% for two-year leases beginning Oct. 1.
The vote of five to four was the conclusion of a contentious meeting, part of an annual process in which the city board weighs tenant and landlord economics to set permitted rent hikes. The outcome found particular significance this year after Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral nomination after pledging to freeze stabilized rents next year.
The board had weighed increases between 1.75% and 4.75% for one-year leases and 3.75% and 7.75% for two-year leases.
Tenant activists led by Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes (D-Brooklyn) chanted “Freeze the rent!” as board members arrived, booing and cheering alternatively at the packed theater of El Museo del Barrio in the Upper East Side, where the meeting was held. “We’re here today making sure that they see us, that they hear us, that they feel us, that we want a rent freeze,” Joanne Grell, co-chair of the New York State Tenants Bloc, told THE CITY. “And to say goodbye to some of them,” she said in reference to the eight board appointees whose terms have already expired and could be replaced at any time.
The board’s nine members are all appointed by the mayor. Two represent tenants, two landlords, and the other five, including the chair, represent the general public. Mamdani’s “freeze the rent” promise is predicated on installing new members of the independent board who would be more sympathetic to tenants and less likely to approve rent hikes — people “who understand that landlords are doing just fine.” The board has approved a freeze three times in the past, all under Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Last year, the board approved hikes of 2.75% for one-year leases and 5.25% for two years.
‘Change Is Coming’
Landlords of rent-regulated apartments saw their net operating income rise 8%, adjusted for inflation, between 2022 and 2023, according to the Rent Guidelines Board’s 2025 income and expense study. In the same period, the study also found that landlords’ rental income grew 6.9% as their total income grew 6.6% and expenses rose 3.8%.
The analysis accounted for over 16,000 buildings containing nearly 700,000 apartments, and showed both income and rental growth varied widely across boroughs.
Landlords have said that hikes are not high enough to maintain their buildings, while tenants said they’re financially squeezed and can’t afford to pay more. During Monday’s meeting, ahead of the vote, both landlord and tenant representatives expressed their disapproval of the proposed increases and voted no.
The landlord representatives warned the increases were not enough to make whole buildings that were financially underwater, and warned that landlords would not be able to make investments to the housing stock.
“We understand that this is a very difficult decision, and that this board is put in a position each year to the utter failures of the state elected officials and the city government to address the high cost of housing and the abject lack of supply,” said board member Christina Smyth, a lawyer, who blamed “the systemic defunding of buildings” on rising property taxes, insurance costs and utility bills as well as the 2019 state tenant protection laws.
On the other hand, the tenant representatives were dismayed with the increases and underscored the call for a rent freeze.
“We demanded a rent freeze, we elected a mayor who promised a rent freeze,” said board member Genesis Aquino, executive director of Tenants & Neighbors, an affordable housing tenant advocacy group. “We may not win in November — whether we win or not, we are strong enough to use our power to get rid of this type of board… so continue fighting. We want a rent freeze.”
Mamdani, who was not at the meeting, said in a statement that even a modest rent hike would 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,” he said.
His absence did not dampen support for his campaign among those gathered to protest the rent hikes. Tenant activists wore campaign pins and waved his orange and blue signs. Some protesters led a brief chant of “Zohran! Zohran!” immediately following the vote. And his primary victory was frequently referenced by tenants and advocates who spoke with THE CITY.
“We knew we were going to be getting a rent increase,” Esteban Girón of Tenants PAC, which endorsed Mamdani, told THE CITY after the vote. “But hopefully, you know, with a new mayor, we’ll have them out of there, because we can’t have that happening anymore.”
by Samantha Maldonado and Claudia Irizarry Aponte