When Mayor Zohran Mamdani launched her Block by Block housing program last month — a program that sounded more like politics than real policy — the target based on small, stable property owners grew exponentially.
Small landlords were already looking up this month, when the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board, now run by Mamdani’s tenants, will consider a one- or two-year rent freeze on the city’s nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.
With a mayoral majority in control of the RGB, we fear the worst: A rent freeze is one of the few campaign promises Mamdani can fulfill without needing state law or Gov. Kathy Hochul’s approval.
The suspension would be a severe blow to financially and physically stressed rental buildings – and to the thousands of pop owners, manufacturers and importers who work under restrictive regulations and ever-increasing costs.
It seems that Mamdani is giving the small owners a chance to fail, paving the way for an evil plan to confiscate private property and turn it into social worker housing used by his non-profit and land trust friends.
Coincidentally, a week before Mamdani launched his housing plan, the City Council also introduced the Community Purchase Opportunity Act, an aggressive law that would have forced financially distressed property owners to sell their properties below market value to a pool of non-profit housing providers endorsed by Mamdani.
The RGB, now participating in a series of public consultations before its final vote on the rent adjustment on June 25, could choose a different approach.
Board members should take a close look at RGB research and data, listen to independent economists warning about record numbers of financially unsustainable rental properties, and reject City Hall politics.
They — and Mamdani, too — have a unique opportunity to change this broken, one-sided system that works against small homeowners, the backbone of the city’s affordable housing ecosystem, and the families we host.
We challenge the mayor and his board to support a twofold rent adjustment, or “separation,” which provides the maximum allowable rent increase for small, stable property owners.
That would provide real relief for pre-1974 rental properties, which are usually 100% or majority stable.
Fixing rent segregation will face very different economic challenges between older housing and new construction.
The one-size-fits-all RGB policy no longer applies.
Older, pressured leasehold buildings are often subject to maintenance and expensive repairs and major system upgrades such as roofing, plumbing, heating, electrical and brickwork.
The RGB should separate this aging housing stock from other types of stable units – such as those of large profitable homeowners, or those located in Manhattan’s high-rises and new construction that benefit from special tax subsidies.
RGB will vote on an initial increase of 0% to 2% in a one-year deal – a ridiculous range that completely ignores its data.
Its new report on the Index Price of Operating Costs found that operating costs and rental housing costs increased by 5.3% from April 2025 to March 2026.
Large institutional landlords can face a near-freeze in their rents.
The younger ones don’t have the resources to do that.
Judging by the RGB numbers, in order to keep their heads above water and their properties from being overrun, small property owners need a rent increase of at least 5.3%.
And what with the cost of keeping the old buildings in good condition, the operating costs have gone up even more more rather to small owners, who are saddled with the burden of a decade’s worth of unsubsidized rent repairs.
From 2016 to 2025, RGB provided a 14% increase in rents – while the Consumer Price Index increased by 28.63%.
Add it up, and that’s a negative 13.98% of the real rent growth rate that has stabilized over the past 10 years.
However RGB is free to set rental orders without a fixed percentage.
In fact, there is an example: In the past, RGB has imposed a separate increase in the minimum rate, which we call a “minimum rent adjustment,” for apartments whose rents have fallen below a certain level.
This provided assistance to small owners who needed assistance to maintain and operate sub-rental units.
The Mamdani-based housing division correction will be a sign that the mayor values small owners as partners in solving the city’s affordable housing problem.
It can be useful for small owners and families we live in.
But policies like Block by Block, COPA and rent freezes ignore the disproportionate economic pressures and unique financial realities of small stable owners.
They will undermine neighborhoods, block by block, the housing stability and affordability that Mamdani claims is yours.
Ann Korchak is president of Small Property Owners of New York.
