Overview
- Zohran Mamdani has vowed to freeze rents for tenants in rent‑stabilized units and to expand affordable housing if elected mayor.
- Economists and industry groups, including the National Association of Realtors, warn a freeze would deter new construction and investment.
- New York Apartment Association leaders say operating costs in mixed buildings could be shifted onto market‑rate renters if stabilized units are frozen.
- Roughly one million rent‑stabilized apartments are in scope, with a median rent near $1,500 cited from the 2023 Housing and Vacancy Survey.
- A Rent Guidelines Board member praised the plan to add 200,000 subsidized units as a supply boost, even as he argued a freeze would miss most market‑rate tenants, and nonprofit advocates cautioned that slower development could raise shared building costs.