{"id":919554,"date":"2026-07-07T22:50:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/919554\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T22:50:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:50:57","slug":"these-are-the-winners-and-losers-of-nycs-rent-freeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/919554\/","title":{"rendered":"These are the winners and losers of NYC’s rent freeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a tale of two rental classes.<\/p>\n

On the one hand you have the 1 million-plus New Yorkers in rent-stabilized apartments, who thanks to Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s highly controversial rent freeze<\/a>, will pay the same low rates for the next two years.<\/p>\n

On the other, there are 1 million apartments that remain at market rates \u2014\u00a0with rents rising to their highest levels in history (the average monthly rent is a whopping $4,180<\/a>) and squeeze hard-working New Yorkers, whose salary increases haven\u2019t kept up with the staggering rent increases.<\/p>\n

Lara Kossover has lived in a rent-stabilized apartment for some 15 years. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

Median gross rent in New York City rose about 13.5% after adjusting for inflation over the decade ending in 2024, according to the NYU Furman Center,<\/a> compared to the 3.2% average inflation rate in the period.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s policy, ironically for a Democrat Socialist, has created the kind of glaring two-tier social system he and his cronies rail against.<\/p>\n

But the winners and losers in Mamdani\u2019s New York aren\u2019t necessarily who you think. <\/p>\n

Yes, there are the stabilized tenants who are delighted to have more money in their pockets. But there are just as many with frozen rent who are panicking about the decline of their buildings. <\/p>\n

And then, of course, there are the landlords themselves who are facing bankruptcy and the market-rate tenants who are being squeezed with rent rises they can barely afford.<\/p>\n

Even President Donald Trump weighed in: \u201cWhat the mayor doesn\u2019t say is that these buildings will soon turn into ghettos and slums<\/a>, and that everybody will continue leaving New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani got the rent freeze he ran on. X\/@NYCMayor<\/p>\n

Here, The Post spoke to tenants and landlords on both sides of the rent-freeze divide \u2014 and the losers are stacked high. <\/p>\n

Losers <\/p>\n

The market-rate renter already hit <\/p>\n

An Upper West Side tenant, who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity, suspects he has already been penalized because of the freeze.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The PR consultant lives with two roommates in about 1,000 square feet for a total monthly rent of $5,500. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The landlord recently informed them that the trio\u2019s rent is going to increase by 6%, far more than the 2.9% increase they got hit with last year.<\/p>\n

Some people in rent-stabilized apartments rejoice after a rent freeze was promised. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my rent might have already been impacted,\u201d said the consultant whose building has a doorman, laundry facilities and a gym along with rent-stabilized units. <\/p>\n

He suspects that the landlord is balancing the books \u2014\u00a0upping rents on market rate apartments to offset losses from the frozen stabilized losses. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey came to me with that number after [Mamdani] said he was going to freeze rents and he got elected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rent freeze takes effect in October. REUTERS<\/p>\n

The PR guy believed the system was already rigged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the rent-stabilized tenants are effectively being subsidized by the free-market tenants,\u201d the PR pro said. The rent freeze compounds it. \u201cIt feels a little bit like a slap in the face,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

A rent-stabilized tenant says freeze is bad for all<\/p>\n

Lara Kossover, who who lives in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom rent-stabilized apartment in Park Slope with her husband and two teenage boys at a rent of $3,300 a month, is worried about maintenance suffering in buildings with the frozen units.<\/p>\n

Kossover lives in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom rent-stabilized apartment in Park Slope with her husband and two teenage boys. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern is the landlord won\u2019t be able to afford to fix anything in the building,\u201d said Kossover, a real estate salesperson with Keller Williams NYC \u2014 especially as expenses rise for property operators. <\/p>\n

The family has resided in their apartment for more than 15 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now it seems like a good thing, but in the long run it\u2019s not going to be a good thing,\u201d said Lara Kossover.<\/p>\n

The linoleum floor in the kitchen is peeling in Kossover\u2019s apartment. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

In fact, maintenance is already an issue for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kossover\u2019s bathroom door is broken and the kitchen linoleum floor is peeling.<\/p>\n

Already \u201cI feel like I\u2019m calling my landlord at least three or four times a year for issues that I feel are emergencies,\u201d Kossover said. <\/p>\n

If there are issues like the peeling floor that haven\u2019t been addressed, what would happen if management cut back services in Kossover\u2019s building? Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

As prices stay flat, quality goes down <\/p>\n

Alexandra \u201cSasha\u201d Avchukov has a similar take. Bond\u2019s Nancy Elton landed Avchukov a rent-stabilized one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment on the Upper East Side for $2,660 a month.<\/p>\n

Avchukov anticipates building quality \u201cgoing down\u201d because the landlords can\u2019t increase the rents to help with building upkeep.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>I feel like it\u2019s already an issue,\u201d she said. \u201cI live in a pretty old building and there are constantly maintenance issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hallway has \u201crotten smells randomly, like trash and stuff,\u201d Avchukov said, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s probably coming from a tenant\u2019s apartment, but it\u2019s just not clean inside the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several New Yorkers expressed fear about the future state of building conditions. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of that is to be expected,\u201d Avchukov said. \u201cAnd I accept that \u2014 living in an old building, but also it would be nice for them to have a cleaner come through the staircase at least once a month or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bathroom ceiling leak took two months for the building to repair. <\/p>\n

\u201cI understand why it seems appealing on the surface,\u201d Avchukov said of the freeze. \u201cBut when you consider more factors, I think it does more harm than good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Financial pressures boil over<\/p>\n

Landlord Violet Zharku owns three fully rent-stabilized properties in Queens, each with about 16 units. She was already trying to offload the properties due to financial pressures, but now is in an even more dire position.<\/p>\n

At her Woodside building, for example, the mortgage and operations there cost $2,400 monthly per unit. Rents there are all below $2,000 a month. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we are losing $172,000 annually,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Zharku said when she and her family acquired the properties a few years ago, they were willing to take the financial hit in the beginning to fix them up and add value and \u201ceventually make the money back. But now we don\u2019t have that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A rent freeze was approved on June 25. OLGA FEDOROVA\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are defeated and we just we have to find a way not to lose any further money than we have already lost within these past three years,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Bankruptcy would be a last resort for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow what we\u2019re doing is trying to figure out \u2014 [whether to] sell it now and lose as little as possible, salvage as much as we can and not go into bankruptcy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

An inevitable decline<\/p>\n

One stabilized property owner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, talked about how conditions would inevitably decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously extremely bad,\u201d as landlords like him won\u2019t \u201cinvest in services,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cAt a certain point [stabilized landlords] won\u2019t be able to provide basic services.\u201d<\/p>\n

The landlord said not only will general maintenance decline, building services will be cut and market-rate rents will be inflated. It also discourages the supply of new housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me like it would be unsustainable to maintain 0% indefinitely because of those buildings where the landlords will just lose the building to [the] bank,\u201d the landlord said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s just not good for those people who live there. People would be better off having a 2% rent increase, but having their living situation functional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will my good deal last?<\/p>\n

Communications expert Kelly Kreth<\/a> is concerned about getting an unfair rent hike for her market-rate one-bedroom unit on the Upper East Side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kelly Kreth fears her market-rate rent will go up as a result of the rent freeze. Olga Ginzburg for the N.Y. Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so worried that now that landlords can\u2019t raise rent-stabilized units for two years, that the only way they can compensate is raising rents even more on market-rate units,\u201d said Kreth, who pays $2,900 per month for her home.<\/p>\n

She is critical of Mamdani saying that as he froze rents, he \u201cshould have also, simultaneously worked with the state to strengthen Good Cause Eviction, putting a smaller cap on market-rate raises. Right now it\u2019s essentially about 8.75% which is a huge raise to deal with potentially each year as a market-rate tenant. Market-rate rents need to be capped to something more reasonable like 5%.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kreth wishes the mayor considered strengthening the Good Cause Eviction Law. Olga Ginzburg for the N.Y. Post<\/p>\n

Enacted in April 2024, the Good Cause Eviction Law gives eligible market-rate tenants the right to a lease renewal and a cap on annual rent increases.<\/p>\n

Winners<\/p>\n

\u2018I think it\u2019s overdue\u2019<\/p>\n

It was a happy day for a Brooklyn man when he won a cheap apartment under New York City\u2019s affordable-housing lottery in 2016.<\/p>\n

After sharing apartments with roommates for years, he finally got to live by himself in a one-bedroom apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, for just $700 a month.<\/p>\n

While low compared to market-rate apartments, in the last 10 years, his rent has climbed more than 45% to $1,020 a month, which he called \u201cnuts,\u201d and noted that even with the increases, there was a year-long period where he \u201chad to hound\u201d the management company to fix the elevators.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn resident is happy about the rent freeze.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s overdue,\u201d the tenant said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A city to call home<\/p>\n

Another rent-stabilized tenant praised the freeze.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy that this passed. It\u2019s very important that we preserve affordable housing,\u201d said Pia Isabella Palomino, a <\/strong>community organizer for an affordable housing-related nonprofit organization. Milton Coste of Keller Williams NYC found her a one-bedroom rent-stabilized apartment in Ridgewood, Queens, where she pays $1,380 a month. She noted the $0 rate won\u2019t apply to her as she just signed her lease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI plan to stay there as long as I can,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a tale of two rental classes. On the one hand you have the 1 million-plus New Yorkers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":919555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[852,5229,11096,6335,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,4329,24845,10204,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":["post-919554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-affordable-housing","tag-america","tag-apartments","tag-exclusive","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-real-estate","tag-rent-stabilization","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116881148254202068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}