For stabilized tenants, two years of rent freezes may soon be over
Almost no one would likely argue that conditions have gotten easier for stabilized renters in NYC, but after two years of rent freezes, it seems that the Rent Guidelines Board may use their upcoming June vote to institute more incremental rent increases for apartments that fall under rent stabilization.
After a preliminary vote on Tuesday night, NY1 reports, the RGB called for an increase between one and three percent for one-year leases, and an increase of between two and four percent for two-year leases. The numbers may sound small, but represent a marked change from the past two years, in which the RGB has instituted a rent freeze on one-year leases, and allowed increases of two percent on two-year leases.
Neither tenant advocates nor landlords are pleased with the decision—landlords, because they were hoping for a larger increase to line up with operating costs, and tenant advocates, because they were hoping for at least another freeze, if not a rent rollback. "It's ludicrous," Met Council director Ava Farkas told the New York Post. "The rent freeze has been one of thew few things the mayor has done right on housing, so it's mind boggling that in an election year he's not going to do a freeze."
A vote finalizing the amount of increase will be held at the Cooper Union on June 27th—expect lots of protests and hearings in the lead-up—and will affect rent-stabilized leases renewed between Oct. 1, 2017 and Sept. 30, 2018.
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