The NYC Community Opportunity to Purchase Act Passed — Now What?

The New York City Council passed the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) on Thursday afternoon after six years of revisions and a mayoral veto.

The law, passed 38-9 by City Council members, gives nonprofit organizations — with or without joint venture partners — first dibs on rent-stabilized buildings being sold. It aims to transfer some of the housing stock away from the private sector or for-profit landlords.

The revised bill gives nonprofit buyers a leg up, requiring sellers to inform the New York City Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) when they intend to list a property so potential buyers can have 70 days to submit an offer. 

But one of the major changes in the bill gives the seller somewhat of an advantage: they can apply for an exemption arguing undue financial hardship. That’s something that is becoming more common for landlords of rent-stabilized properties, which are facing increasing costs and little relief, especially following Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial freeze on rent increases in this sector that went into effect  Oct. 1.

Additionally, COPA will only apply to properties dealing with a high number of violations from either HPD or the New York City Department of Buildings and those participating in a city remediation program.

Mamdani was public in his support of the bill in May, so it is likely to be signed into law this time around.

But the program may not be the breakthrough for nonprofit organizations that the City Council believes it could be.

“Nonprofit buildings in many ways don’t pay property taxes and they’re still financially struggling, which goes to show you that this is as much of an expense problem as it is also a revenue problem,” Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association, said in an interview with Commercial Observer. “We’ve just had this perfect storm of uncontrollable factors like interest rates and COVID, but the only controllable factors like government regulations and laws and rent freezes have all piled onto each other. Now we’ve met a moment where it’s really untenable.

“Nonprofits already own and operate housing across our city, and they’re showing us how untenable it has become,” Burgos added.

The root cause of the issues in rent-stabilized housing would likely be the same for nonprofits as well as for-profit owners. High interest rates, rising insurance costs and the skyrocketing prices of utilities have left many landlords without the liquidity to keep up with repairs, let alone make upgrades.

Up to 57,000 rent-stabilized units currently sit vacant, which is an increase of 70 percent since 2019, according to the New York State Division of Homes and Community Renewal.

Former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed COPA as one of his last acts in office after the bill failed to gain a supermajority in the chamber. When the City Council attempted to override the veto in January 2026, it lacked the support of council members.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.