Sandhya Espitia, the Real Estate Board of New York’s COO, Is Definitely Not Analog

New York and the real estate industry have always had an interdependent relationship. Somewhere along the way, though, the perception that the relationship was symbiotic, even good for the city, was lost.

“There’s this demonizing narrative that real estate is just so bad, you know — they’re the big bad wolf — and we’re not,” said Sandhya Espitia, chief operating officer at the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), the trade association juggernaut that works on everything from policy around housing, taxes and vouchers, to administering a residential listing service in the city, to education and networking for its 14,000 members primarily made up of residential and commercial real estate agents and brokers. 

“Nearly 50 percent of the locally gathered taxes in New York City come from real estate to pay for essential services,” Espitia said, speaking from her home office on the Upper West Side, a seasonal cold keeping her from REBNY’s headquarters on the concourse and second floor of the General Electric Building at 570 Lexington Avenue. “We are New York City’s No. 1 civic partner.”

It is Espitia’s mission to do not only the behind-the-scenes work at REBNY to convince New Yorkers that the real estate industry is not the bogeyman, but also to recast the perception of the 130-year-old trade organization itself. As REBNY’s first COO, Espitia, 49, has taken it upon herself to bring its once alarmingly analog operations into the 21st century while reshaping its public perception. 

Where once REBNY’s reputation was of an antiquated trade group that was out of touch with the needs of all New Yorkers, Espitia’s goal is to recast it as an organization that’s a trusted resource for agents and brokers that also advocates for policy that will meet all city residents’ long-term needs. It’s a tall order. Espitia just might have the chops to see it through.

“She’s warm and welcoming, but she is really so smart and brilliant and can get to the point. Her work ethic is unbelievable,” said John Santora, CEO of WeWork, who sat on REBNY’s executive committee while tri-state chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, a position he left in 2024. “She could stand her ground with the largest of legacy real estate people that are part of REBNY, but she respected the legacy, too. She was and is not a pushover.”

This way to New York

Espitia has always been a go-getter. She grew up in Cali, Colombia, with a five-year stint in Mexico City before moving to the United States 25 years ago. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University in 2004 on a full academic scholarship and quickly moved into a commercial leasing and marketing job in Dallas-Fort Worth for the Legaspi Company, a development and brokerage firm that caters to Latino culture. 

While she enjoyed the work, Espitia had an itch to get into international economic development and diplomacy and pursued a master’s in international education at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt.

From there she jumped into a position with Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, where she managed a unit that transformed Harvard research into online and in-person professional development programs for educators and leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

It led to a role at the institution in a different division managing academic and professional programs throughout the Americas, including the Fulbright Program.

Espitia and her then partner, now husband, both felt New York calling and decided to make it their new home in 2012. The chosen upheaval meant that holding a job in Cambridge, Mass., was no longer so feasible. Espitia landed in a new role in January 2013 at the International Council of Shopping Centers (now ICSC), where she served as the managing director of Latin America and the Caribbean before becoming the trade organization’s global vice president just two years later. The work necessitated a lot of travel — too much travel, she thought, after welcoming her daughter in 2015. 

It was time to find a job that would allow her to stay in one place. 

After spotting a listing on LinkedIn, Espitia joined REBNY as a senior vice president in June 2017. Almost immediately, “I started seeing a lot of inefficiencies and a lot of core issues for REBNY to remain relevant,” she said. She realized that talent at the organization had to be overhauled, as did its technology and many of its systems and processes. She organically moved into the role of chief operating officer, and officially assumed the title in February 2020.

She saw to it that the board started hiring experts across fields like policy, government relations and event management. She oversaw the transition of the nonprofit’s database of member information that governs much of the board’s business decision-making, moving from an outdated Oracle system to a continuously updated Salesforce system. She spearheaded the transition of information from a local server to a cloud-based server. She also managed the overhaul of the way REBNY collects dues; where once the board would send out 17,000 mailers to bring in payment, it now accepts Apple Pay.

“Sandhya has had a transformative impact on REBNY, modernizing our technology, operating infrastructure and member experience, among many other accomplishments,” REBNY President James Whelan said in a statement to Commercial Observer. “Thanks to her hard work and insight, we are a more agile and growing organization that the industry needs to take on the big fights and represent real estate in its most important market.”

Not your traditional COO

Now that the daily processes have been streamlined, the small but mighty 50-person team at REBNY can focus on the policy, advocacy and education work at the core of its mission. Espitia has a hand in all of it. 

“I’m not your traditional COO. I do all the backbone operations that are invisible and make peoples’ jobs easy” — like ensuring the office and its systems are running smoothly — “…and then the other side of it is I’m a very member-facing COO as well,” she said.

Bess Freedman, CEO of brokerage Brown Harris Stevens, said Espitia engages with REBNY members in a way that’s increasingly rare. “She stops in her tracks and really listens to what people are saying versus how people listen with an intent to just respond,” Freedman said. “She is quiet, and she takes in what you’re saying … and she gets back to you with meaningful feedback.”

One of the changes Espitia has helped enact at the organization with relationship building in mind is bringing key members to the table with REBNY leaders to discuss industry issues. A member recently told her that REBNY acts as their professional insurance, keeping them informed on policy issues and fair housing law. It’s that kind of reassurance that fuels Espitia in the role.

There is no normal day in the office, but at this time of year she’s overseeing the yearly membership campaign and conversing with marketing and social media teams. That includes  ensuring that the organization is keeping track of cash flow and finalizing details for the REBNY Gala, now called the Annual, happening Jan. 22 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

“They used to be dusty galas. They were boring,” said Freedman. “They were in cold rooms. The food was horrible,” and the vibes were bad. Under Espitia’s leadership, it has been a “sea change.” There are celebrity chefs, and even the music is good. “It made it a fun event where everybody wants to go,” she added.

The funds brought in from the Annual, which Espitia said accounts for about 20 percent of REBNY’s annual revenue, will help it continue its policy and advocacy work as well as its litigation. 

Right now, the organization is fighting the FARE Act, a law ratified in June 2025 that prohibits brokers representing landlords from charging broker fees. While on the surface it sounds like a positive for New Yorkers, REBNY argues that it’s reducing the number of rentals on the market while driving up prices as landlords bake the fee into rents. REBNY has sued the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and is awaiting a verdict.

The organization is also poised to butt heads with the Mamdani administration over the mayor’s campaign promise to freeze rents for rent-stabilized tenants, which appears a certainty as Mayor Zohran Mamdani will get to appoint a majority to the Rent Guidelines Board that votes on annual increases. Freezing the rent is also bad for New Yorkers, REBNY argues.

“When you freeze the rent, the landlords are not able to bear the cost of maintenance and upkeep of the asset,” Espitia said, which will ultimately affect the living conditions of tenants and allow apartments in disrepair to fall into long-term vacancy. “We’re really concerned about that, and we’re advocating for sound policy that is based on data and reason.”

Espitia’s work ethic, her open ear to the city’s real estate community at all levels, and her data-informed approach to her work will make for an interesting future, to say the least, predicts WeWork’s Santora.

“I don’t know how far she goes,” he said. “My gut tells me, at some point she moves into the political world, or maybe becomes tapped by a governor or a mayor — not saying this governor or this mayor — but I think there’s something more in her future beyond REBNY.”