It was perhaps Zohran Mamdani’s biggest promise when he campaigned for mayor last year: To freeze the rent, a pledge that would impact more than 2 million New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments.
That promise is now being put to the test before the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), which Mamdani stacked in his favor with appointees earlier this year. On Thursday, it approved a preliminary rent plan for the 2026-27 year that would increase rents by 0-2% for stabilized tenants with one-year leases, and 0-4% for two-year leases.
The final vote in June could lead the RGB to vote for the 0% side of the ledger – which would freeze rents as they are for those in rent-stabilized apartments. But the measure passed last week still leaves the door open for the board to increase the rent, albeit at a far lesser rate than in previous years.
Already, the gnashing of teeth over the potential outcomes has begun.
Landlord groups say the rent freeze would hurt them financially and impact their ability to make costly improvements to their buildings. Tenant advocates wanted the door to any rent increase slammed shut, but didn’t get that from the RGB on Thursday; they argue that any hike would only add to the desperate financial burdens they experience today.
And Mamdani struck a more cautious tone in a statement issued after last week’s RGB vote.
The mayor said he appreciated the board “taking seriously the data around affordability, operating expenses, and the pressures facing both tenants and small property owners.” At the same time, he also offered several verbal winks and nods in expressing confidence that the RGB would ultimately “arrive at a decision that reflects the urgency of this moment.”
Campaigning is easy; governing is harder. Mamdani seems to be realizing that nearly six months into the job. Making buses fare-free, taxing the rich and freezing the rent may sound good to the average voter – but making them a reality is proving far tougher.
In the end, the RGB may indeed freeze the rent. We imagine the political pressure on the members to do so will be enormous in the weeks before their final vote. Yet pressure alone cannot guide the board to its final vote; as the mayor said, it must take “seriously the data” – all the data – and let that dictate their decision.
A rent freeze would hurt small property owners the most. They own a third of the city’s housing stock in an era where private equity firms have bought up so much of the city and contributed to skyrocketing housing costs. Every time a small property owner sells, a private equity firm gains – and the rents grow higher.
At the same time, a dramatic rent increase would only drive more working- and middle-class families away from New York because of increased costs. Those apartments could potentially hit the open market – and the rents grow higher.
We do not envy the RGB’s position, but the city is counting on them to find a way to get it right.