New NYC Assessment Roll Means Higher Taxes Are On the Way

On the whole, New York City is way more valuable this year than it was last year, and property owners citywide are about to face higher taxes as a result.

Unfortunately, the higher values are unequally distributed, leaving many other properties facing higher taxes despite weakened valuations due to the city’s general reluctance to officially lower valuations.  

According to the New York City Department of Finance’s (DOF) tentative assessment roll for fiscal year 2027, the market value of all city properties in 2025 rose 5.37 percent to $1.659 trillion. 

The new tentative tax roll released Jan. 15 also shows that billable assessed values, on which the next tax bills are based, rose 5.59 percent to $325.76 billion.

These are both record highs, said Ben Williams of law firm Rosenberg & Estis. 

DOF, currently led by Acting Commissioner Jeffrey Shear, emphasized stronger gains in value from offices, retail, and hotels compared with last year.

Despite this, both the City Comptroller and Independent Budget Office (IBO) forecast that the city will end fiscal year 2026 with budget deficits. 

For FY26, which starts on July 1, IBO forecasts a gap of $2.2 billion, which is then projected to balloon to $10.4 billion in 2027. 

The mayor’s office is forecasting that property taxes will rise by 3.7 percent in 2026 to bring in $36.63 billion, which is $1.3 billion more than last year, or $1,171 extra from each of the 1.11 million city tax lots.

Details of the tentative tax roll already show that average taxes will be higher for nearly every property category.

Citywide, some miscellaneous Class 4 commercial condos may see a drop in taxes, and condo storage units in residential condo buildings may see tax declines of 13 cents a square foot to $5.89 per square foot, or an average of $1,082. 

In Manhattan, there are now 4.5 percent more regulated rentals, so average taxes are projected to go down $6 to $5,758 per unit. 

Pretty much everything else is on the rise.

Taxes for Class 1 homes will rise by an average of $360 for a total tax of $7,972 each, with Manhattan’s townhomes getting a $2,024 boost to a whopping $70,448. 

Manhattan’s condominiums will pay an average of $23,274, or $762 more for each unit.  

Citywide, billables for regulated rentals were boosted by 10.99 percent, sending the average tax up $33 to $3,924 per unit. Unregulated unit billables rose 3.88 percent and $1,358 per unit to $9,265 each.  

According to Williams, DOF shifted thousands of unregulated buildings to its “regulated” column this year, perhaps to encompass any building that contained a rent-regulated apartment. DOF did not return an email requesting comment. 

Citywide, hotels got a 7.23 percent boost in billable value, with average taxes going up 63 cents a squre foot to $13.13 per square foot.  

At $820.28 million, the most valuable hotel in New York is the Waldorf Astoria, which reopened in July after an eight-year renovation. 

Its neighbor, the J.P. Morgan Chase building at 270 Park Avenue, which opened in October, was valued at $1.58 billion. With the building’s construction now complete, its taxable value rose to $687.76 million. Based on this year’s tax rate, its July 1 tax bill could be $74.6 million, up from this year’s $38.9 million.  

For FY26, Williams said DOF valued 270 Park based on income of $130 per square foot, a number that rose for FY27. 

(Exact figures couldn’t be determined because the city is still updating its website with the FY27 projections.)

The General Motors building at 767 Fifth Avenue remains the most valuable building in the city, going up 4.52 percent to $1.837 billion in market value and up 3.32 percent to a billable value of $788.87 million.

As free rent periods dropped off, One Vanderbilt’s market value went up 15.46 percent to $1.34 billion, and 5.48 percent in billable value to $518.44 million.

Overall, trophy office building taxes will rise 8.34 percent, up $1.29 per square foot to $23.67 per square foot. Class A buildings dropped an average of 0.6 percent, but average taxes will still go up 76 cents to $19.16 per square foot. 

Class B office taxes will rise by 1.52 percent, or 47 cents a square foot, to $15.74 per square foot. 

As for retail, the new Tiffany jewelry store at Fifth Avenue and East 57th Street was valued at $225.26 million. 

But while the city is stacked with prestige properties watching their value soar, there are also a slew of properties dropping in value yet not receiving the tax relief that such a decline should bring. Some of these properties are falling into foreclosure as rents cannot keep up with expenses, including high property taxes.

This is happening because whatever a building’s real-life situation, it is rare for DOF to reduce valuations. While it did reduce some during the pandemic, it took an extra year to do so, and even very cautiously at that. 

As a result, there are significant properties where the city’s valuation should have dropped precipitously but did not.  

A recent poster child for lost valuation is the office portion of 1540 Broadway that had a mortgage of $445 million in 2022. 

At the end of December 2025, the lender took over 1540 Broadway at a revaluation of $237.532 million – well below the city’s estimated market value of $287.414 million for FY26 that resulted in a billable of $126.5 million, and property taxes of $13.89 million. 

The city did drop the tentative FY27 value of that office condominium, but only to $278.74 million. Its billable assessed value is now $125.43 million, and taxes at the current rate of 10.848 percent would be $13.6 million. 

If the owners fight the new assessed value and it is eventually revalued to $237.532 million, at the current rate it would pay the city just $11.59 million. 

Another building, the 2 million-square-foot Worldwide Plaza at 825 Eighth Avenue, was valued in 2017 at $1.7 billion when two of the city’s savviest office building operators, SL Green and RXR, bought a 49 percent stake. 

For FY26, the city valued Worldwide Plaza at $825.78 million. Now, for FY27, it has dropped the value to a tentative $825.71 million. 

According to The Real Deal, the half-empty building was appraised privately in April at $345 million – still below the city’s recent billable value of $369.02 million, which actually rose due to the city’s assessment procedures. This fiscal year, the building will pay $39.109 million in property taxes. 

If its owners can convince city assessors and the Tax Commission that its market value is $345 million, it would have a taxable value of $155.25 million, and pay only $16.84 million in property taxes – less than half of what the building pays now. 

It may take many years, however, for the current or future owners to see either a drop in their tax bills or a refund check, as they are required to pay the higher amount while fighting City Hall.

Since COVID, when people stopped paying rent and interest rates rose, many buildings have gone through court or similar UCC foreclosures, and have been transferred to new owners at a much lower cost basis than that of the original purchaser. Many rent-regulated buildings in particular are in financial straits that would not be cured by fixing up and renting empty units under the current regulations. 

But in an effort to support city budgets that have ballooned to nearly $130 billion, the city appraisers do not appear to have dropped valuations even where expected.

Owners wishing to appeal their tentative assessment must now do so to the city’s “independent” Tax Commission. 

Buildings in tax classes 2, 3 and 4 – multifamily residential, utility and commercial properties, respectively — have until March 2 to file an application, while Class 1 homes have until March 16.