Tax Hikes on NYC’s Rent-Stabilized Housing Exceed Inflation: Report
By Emily Davis June 10, 2026 12:41 pm
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Despite decreased operating incomes, taxes on rent-stabilized properties are rising faster than inflation, according to a new report by the New York University Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.
The center’s State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods report, released Tuesday, highlighted the blight of tax inequities on New York City’s most affordable housing stock. The report comes as operational challenges and policy changes have been linked to significant distress on the part of lower-income, older rent-stabilized buildings across the city.
For pre-1974 properties where units are more than 90 percent stabilized, taxes rose faster than inflation between 2019 and 2025, the report found. The median per-unit property tax bill totaled $3,082 per year, adding up to $1.5 billion across the city’s 463,333 units inside legacy 90 percent properties.
“The evidence continues to mount that many of these buildings are approaching a financial cliff,” Kenny Burgos, CEO of landlord lobbying group the New York Apartment Association (NYAA), said in a statement to Commercial Observer. “If policymakers and advocates ignore these warning signs, we risk the deterioration and loss of affordable housing relied upon by hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers.”
The NYAA noted that the report’s release coincided with news that OceanFirst Financial plans to sell off $1.4 billion in multifamily loans from its acquisition of Flushing Financial, largely eliminating its exposure to rent-regulated properties in New York City.
New York City’s location-based, “mass appraisal” tax system, according to the Furman report, lumps together struggling and healthy buildings, placing financially distressed 90 percent-stabilized buildings in the same tax category as wealthier, 50 percent-stabilized buildings.
The authors also concluded that outdated formulas capping landlords’ expenses and estimating property values haven’t kept pace with falling market values. A 64 percent cap on landlords’ claimable expenses originally designed to capture just 10 percent of outliers was exceeded by more than 20 percent of Manhattan’s legacy, low-cost building owners in 2024, according to the report.
In May, City Hall walked back plans for a citywide property tax hike, proposed as a last-ditch effort to close municipal budget gaps, with the release of the administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget.
In lieu of new legislation, the Furman Center’s report suggested tax bills can be made more fair and low-cost housing better preserved if the city changes how it categorizes properties for tax purposes, as well as update its expense cap and valuation formulas.
The report added, however, that property taxes represent a little more than a quarter of rising operating costs for legacy, low-cost properties.
“While reducing tax burdens may be helpful as a part of a larger effort to solve the financial challenges faced by the regulated housing stock, it is not a panacea as long as rent increases continue to fall short of the growth in expenses and inflation,” the report said.
Emily Davis can be reached at edavis@commercialobserver.com.
