{"id":344,"date":"2026-06-26T19:09:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=344"},"modified":"2026-06-26T19:09:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:09:56","slug":"new-york-city-is-freezing-the-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=344","title":{"rendered":"New York City is freezing the rent"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Make that two for three. A little over halfway into his first year in office, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has made real progress on two of his three central campaign promises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Menin delays budget handshake, pressing Mamdani on rental voucher expansion<\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday, the city\u2019s Rent Guidelines Board approved a rent freeze for both one- and two-year leases for the city\u2019s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized units by a 7-1 vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a historic victory for New York City tenants,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement following the vote. \u201cAfter reviewing the data and hearing from New Yorkers across the city, the independent RGB has delivered a freeze on one-year leases, and the first-ever freeze on two- year leases in our city\u2019s history. This is the relief that working people across our city deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of New Yorkers packed into the El Museo del Barrio auditorium in East Harlem Thursday evening to hear the highly anticipated outcome. It was a raucous\u00a0\u2013 albeit celebratory \u2013 occasion, punctuated with cheers, chanting and whistling. Organizers from New York State Tenant Bloc, CAAV Voice and other advocacy groups led the crowd in chants as the auditorium filled to capacity. Attendees held red signs reading \u201cfreeze the rent, which had been distributed by the city\u2019s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Rent Guidelines Board took a preliminary vote on the matter in May, setting a range of possible allowable increases for one-year leases \u2013\u00a0between 0-2% \u2013 and two-year leases \u2013 between 0-4%. While not definitive, tenant advocates rejoiced at the possibility that a rent freeze could actually be on the horizon. Mamdani championed the freeze on the campaign trail, galvanizing droves of New Yorkers around the prospect. Alongside universal child care (some progress made) and free buses (no tangible progress made), \u201cfreeze the rent\u201d was one of Mamdani\u2019s three central campaign planks.<\/p>\n

Rent freezes aren\u2019t entirely unprecedented. Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, the board voted to freeze the rent for one-year leases three times, and another time for half a year. But during Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 administration, the board raised the rent . Calls for a rent freeze grew louder each year. In 2024, shortly after announcing his candidacy for mayor, Mamdani ran the New York City Marathon in a shirt that said \u201cEric Adams Raised My Rent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Opinion: DSA\u2019s championship performance<\/a><\/p>\n

On the campaign trail, Mamdani said that he would freeze the rent for every year of his first term. But the Rent Guidelines Board, while its members are appointed by the mayor, is an independent board that is meant to consider a range of data before deciding on rent increases, including landlord costs, cost of living, renter incomes and more. Both tenant and landlord advocates have argued in the past that mayors can and do exert influence over the board\u2019s decision, however.<\/p>\n

After being elected mayor and taking office, Mamdani backed off his explicit calls for a rent freeze, but appointed five new members and one returning member of the nine-person board, giving tenant advocates tangible hope in a freeze. That hope was fulfilled on Thursday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the board\u2019s two members representing owners was notably absent for the vote.\u00a0 Christina Smyth, who also served on the RGB during the Adams administration, submitted her resignation to the board the morning of the vote. \u201cThis rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze,\u201d she wrote in her resignation letter. \u201cEverything since has been theater. The hearings, the reports, the public comment, the data. None of it was ever going to change the result.\u201d The other owner representative, Maksim Wynn, gave a speech calling for better tools to help landlords, but nonetheless voted in favor of a rent freeze.<\/p>\n

Smyth\u2019s dramatic departure has drawn speculation that the board\u2019s decision could face legal challenges by landlord groups. Smyth told the Daily News that she would \u201cdo everything I can to assist\u201d in challenges by landlords \u201caggrieved by the way this process has played out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a prepared statement, Ann Korchak, board president of the landlord group Small Property Owners of New York, called the vote a \u201cfarce.\u201d \u201cThe RGB may have technically met its quorum requirements, but proceeding with one of the most consequential rent votes in recent times with half of its owner representation undermined the balance and fairness of this process,\u201d Korchak said. \u201cOn top of being an owner voice short, this is an egregious violation of the RGB\u2019s legal mandate to set rent adjustments based on the math of its own research, not on political influence. There is no practical or legal justification for this outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Here\u2019s how to avoid a DSA challenge<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rent Guidelines Board approved a one-year rent freeze for the city\u2019s rent-stabilized housing stock. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,122],"tags":[21,123],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-york-city","category-real-estate","tag-new-york-city","tag-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"\nNew York City is freezing the rent - Business Relocation Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=344\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New York City is freezing the rent - Business Relocation Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Rent Guidelines Board approved a one-year rent freeze for the city\u2019s rent-stabilized housing stock.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=344\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Business Relocation Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T19:09:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=344#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=344\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3174a35dc160ba2a2c93ee7892afb9e0\"},\"headline\":\"New York City is freezing the rent\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T19:09:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=344\"},\"wordCount\":796,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=344#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/6ad633dc619b7a2c1700b5cb2377ec1e.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"New York City\",\"Real Estate\"],\"articleSection\":[\"New York City\",\"Real Estate\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=344#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=344\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=344\",\"name\":\"New York City is freezing the rent - 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