Experts warn New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposed housing agenda could further strain rental affordability in the Big Apple.
The plan, aimed at tackling the tag team crisis of affordability and housing, includes an immediate freeze on more than 2 million rent-stabilized apartments.
“Economists — whether they are on the right or on the left — essentially are in universal agreement, that when the government implements price controls in the rental market, you end up with housing shortages,” said E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation think tank.
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“And not only do you end up with fewer housing units available, but the quality of those units consistently goes down as well,” Antoni told FOX Business.
Emily Hamilton, the director of the Urbanity Project at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, echoed similar concerns with Mamdani’s housing policy platform.
“It’s going to exacerbate the city’s housing quality problems that the current rent stabilization law is already exacerbating. A rent freeze would just make that worse, and ultimately will contribute to the reduction in the supply of rent-stabilized units,” she said.
Mamdani’s affordable housing pledges come as the Rent Guidelines Board voted Monday night to increase the rent by 3% on rent-stabilized apartments with a one-year lease. The board also raised rents by 4.5% for units with two-year leases.
The rent increases are slated to take effect in October.
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According to a 2023 government report, rent-stabilized units accounted for about 27% of the overall housing stock in New York City and 41% of rental apartments. The report also finds that among rent-stabilized units, the median monthly rent was approximately $500 cheaper than market-rate rentals.
Mamdani has previously blamed the board, which he describes as hand-picked by current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, of “jacking up rents on stabilized apartments by 9% (and counting).”
Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to Fox Business’ request for comment for the purposes of this story.
The three-term assemblymember, who has made lowering costs for New Yorkers a cornerstone of his campaign, has also proposed building 200,000 affordable housing units. Hamilton said this element of Mamdani’s platform shows real potential for success.
She explained that the passage of the 1961 Zoning Resolution made it difficult to add real estate in New York City, which contributed to an affordability problem and a push to regulate rents.
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“It’s regulation on top of regulation, rather than addressing the root cause of housing undersupply and just making it easier to build housing of all types at all price points,” Hamilton said.
“The only way in which I see this economic agenda of his working out well in the long run is if the voters see just how disastrous the consequences of his policies are and thereby decide to reject socialism whole cloth and return to a free-market capitalist solution,” Antoni said.
“If we look at the ways in which New York City is more expensive than other places around the country, it is chiefly due to bad public policy that has imposed those costs,” he said, adding that “doubling down on those government failures will only make it worse.”
Mamdani has also vowed to hold landlords to account.
His campaign website outlines a revamped 311 service where tenants can schedule and track maintenance requests.
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“If a landlord refuses to make a repair, the city will do it and send them the bill. And in the most extreme cases, when an owner demonstrates consistent neglect for their tenants, the city will decisively step in and take control of their properties,” the campaign site states.
Mamdani’s economic agenda for the nation’s largest city also includes free bus rides, city-owned grocery stores and a minimum wage hike.
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