New York City Freezes the Rent on 1 Million Apartments for Two Years

New York City's Rent Guidelines Board voted Thursday night to freeze rents on the city's roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments for two years. The board set the allowable increase at 0% for both one-year and two-year leases that begin between October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2027.

The vote was 7 to 1. It is the first time the board has held rents flat on two-year leases, according to a statement from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who promised a freeze during his campaign. About 2.4 million New Yorkers live in rent-stabilized units, according to NY1.

What the board does

The Rent Guidelines Board is a nine-member panel that sets the maximum a landlord can raise the rent on a rent-stabilized apartment each year. The mayor appoints the members. The board holds public hearings, reviews data on building operating costs and tenant incomes, votes on a range in the spring, and votes on a final number in June.

Mamdani appointed six of the nine members in February, weeks after he took office. Thursday's vote came six months into his term. The board met at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem. Chantella Mitchell, the board's chair, said a freeze was "a fair and responsible approach this year," according to Democracy Now.

The numbers

The 0% adjustment is the floor of the range the board set in a preliminary vote in May, which ran from 0% to 2% for one-year leases and 0% to 4% for two-year leases, according to NY1. A year earlier, the board approved increases of 3% for one-year leases and 4.5% for two-year leases.

What owners say

Property owners argued the freeze will make it harder to keep up older buildings as labor and maintenance costs climb. The board's own 2026 Price Index of Operating Costs found that the cost of running buildings with rent-stabilized units rose 5.3% over the past year, according to NY1.

Christina Smyth, who represented owners on the board, resigned Thursday morning, hours before the vote. Then-Mayor Eric Adams had appointed her in December. In a statement posted to LinkedIn, Smyth wrote that "this year's RGB order was decided last year on the campaign trail," and that after Mamdani's February appointments, "this rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze. Everything since has been theater." Her departure left eight members to cast the 7-1 vote.

Asked about the resignation, Mamdani told News 12 the board was "independent" and that he would "trust them to make the decision they will make."

What it means for tenants

A tenant on a covered lease will pay the same base rent in the next lease year that they paid in the current one. The freeze applies only to rent-stabilized apartments and only to leases that start or renew in the October 2026 to September 2027 window. It does not touch market-rate units, and it does not roll back current rents.

Mamdani, in his statement, said he would keep working "to deliver a more affordable city by building and preserving affordable housing, lowering building operating costs like insurance, and ensuring tenants know their rights." Owner groups have signaled the vote could draw a legal challenge, according to Fox Business.