New York City freezes rents for 1 million flats in win for Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s democratic socialist mayor, called the decision ‘a historic victory’ for tenants
A New York City housing board voted on Thursday to freeze the rents for about one million regulated flats for up to two years, fulfilling a central campaign promise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani only months into his term.
The 7-1 vote by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board set increases at zero on both one-year and two-year leases from October. Hundreds of tenants who crowded into a Manhattan museum auditorium cheered and blew whistles at the result.
“This is a historic victory for New York City tenants,” Mamdani said in a statement. “This is the relief that working people across our city deserve.”
The vote was the culmination of a weeks-long, noisy annual ritual that determines how much landlords can increase what they charge for rent-stabilised flats, home to about a quarter of New Yorkers. The board weighs factors including wages, inflation, maintenance costs, taxes and landlords’ incomes.
The average monthly rent for a regulated flat was US$1,599, according to the board’s 2025 study, in a city where the median rent for a newly leased flat is US$3,950, according to listings agency StreetEasy.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has promised to make the city more affordable, has appointed six of the board’s nine members since he took office in January, choosing people he believes are sympathetic to tenants.