Comptroller Lander Calls for a Rent Freeze in Testimony to the Rent Guidelines Board

New York, NY – After reviewing the data, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander called for a rent freeze for the following year in his testimony to the Rent Guidelines Board. 

Comptroller Lander’s testimony as prepared for delivery is below here:

Good morning, Chair Apple, Executive Director McLaughlin, and Members of the Rent Guidelines Board.  Thank you for convening this hearing and for the opportunity to give testimony today.  

Thank you to the RGB for your research, which provides important data on the health and conditions of the rent stabilized housing stock; on the trajectory of rents, costs, net operating income; and on some of the challenges facing tenants and owners. 

For me, the goal has always been clear, given the housing emergency that is the underlying reason for rent stabilization: we must keep rents as low as we possibly can, while ensuring that units are well-maintained, heat and services provided, supers paid, and essential costs covered. 

After carefully reviewing the research reports compiled by the Rent Guidelines Board for 2025, I believe that a rent freeze is appropriate for the upcoming year, following three years of rent increases that have raised rents by nearly 9%.  

A few key metrics have led me to this decision:  

• After adjusting for inflation, Net Operating Income for owners grew by 8% between 2022 and 2023. This is a major turnaround in NOI over the past few years. NOI declined from 2019 to 2020, and again from 2020 to 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, then increased only modestly by just over 4% between 2021 and 2022.
• Increases in NOI are consistent throughout the five boroughs and by the percentage of rent stabilized units:  
  • Increasing in 83% of community districts across New York City.  
  • NOI is up 12% in buildings with at least one stabilized unit, and solidly increasing in buildings with 100% rent stabilized apartments, up 4.6% from 2022 to 2023.  

• From 2022 to 2023, rental income increased an average of 6.9% while operating costs rose an average of 3.8%. Operating costs are rising, of course. But rental income and NOI are rising twice as fast. 

• Building distress has declined for the first time since 2016 and rent collection is up in every single community district in the city. These are strong indicators, that show that the nearly $3 billion in emergency rental assistance funding helped tenants pay rent and increased owners’ ability to operate their buildings, and that rental properties have largely recovered financially since the pandemic.  

• For the small but real handful of buildings facing ongoing distress, my office has recommended detailed strategies that would effectively address the challenges they face. But this does not require an across-the-board rent increase that would hit millions of tenants.  

• At the same time, and this is critical, tenants continue to struggle mightily. More than 45% of rent-stabilized tenants are rent burdened. Low-income tenants struggle to keep up with rising inflation as the Consumer Price Index rose 3.8% in 2024 – even as average, inflation-adjusted wages declined slightly. Representation of tenants facing eviction in Housing Court has continued to decline, from a high of 71% down to a low of 42%, leaving tenants more vulnerable.   

This Board’s job is never easy, balancing the need to keep units affordable amidst a housing emergency, with the need to ensure that there are sufficient resources to maintain building conditions. Back in 2015 and 2016, I advocated for and supported the Board’s decision to freeze rents. Over the few years, coming out of the pandemic, I supported modest increases (though lower than the ones that were ultimately adopted). 

But this year, after three years of substantial increases that have hiked rent stabilized rents by 9%, I believe the evidence is clear:  

New York City is in the midst of a housing emergency and tenants are struggling to make ends meet. The data laid out by the RGB demonstrates that this year, landlords have more than the income they need to keep the heat on, make repairs, pay their supers a living wage, and keep their buildings well maintained.  

I urge the Board to freeze the rent in rent stabilized apartments in the upcoming year, to make this City a little more affordable to hard-working, and too often struggling, New Yorkers.    

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.  

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