Rent Guidelines Board Scales Back Rent Hikes on Rent-Stabilized Apartments

The Rent Guidelines Board has revised its plan for New York City’s nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.

The nine-member board voted Tuesday to lower the proposed range for hikes on two-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments to between 3.75 and 7.75 percent, down from the board’s preliminary vote last month to raise rents by between 4.75 and 7.75 percent, CBS News reported.

The proposed range for one-year lease increases, however, remained the same at between 1.75 percent and 4.75 percent. A final vote for the hikes is scheduled for June 27.

“As the board implements its mandate to consider the cost of operating rent-stabilized buildings while maintaining reasonable rents, it must also consider the economic uncertainty reflected in much of the testimony that the board has received to date,” Doug Apple, chair of the board, said in a statement Tuesday.

“As we hear public testimony in the coming weeks, I believe that greater flexibility within the preliminary guidelines for two-year leases is important,” Apple added.

The rare revote comes after Mayor Eric Adams — who’s facing the prospect of being voted out of office — expressed concerns about the board’s preliminary April vote, saying the up to 7.75 percent increase on two-year leases was “far too unreasonable of [a] burden for tenants,” ABC7NY reported.

But the members of the board — who are appointed by the mayor — seemed to be in favor of a lower range than what was voted in April, as the approximately 2.4 million New Yorkers who live in rent-stabilized apartments are “struggling,” Crain’s New York Business reported.

Legislation was even introduced last week to weaken the mayor’s power over the Rent Guidelines Board by shrinking the size of the board and requiring members pass a City Council confirmation vote, according to Crain’s.

A spokesperson for Adams’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, many landlord groups in the city have called for a complete freeze on property taxes, as they’ve seen property tax bills go up 8 percent or more year-over-year, Manhattan landlord Isaac Rabinovitch told CBS News.

The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit that helps to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants, has also called for a freeze on rent increases, as the “well-being of over 2 million rent-stabilized tenants depends on it,” Crain’s reported.

News of the revote comes after the Rent Guidelines Board’s vote last year to approve a rent hike of 2.75 percent for one-year leases and 5.25 percent for two-year leases, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.