New York City’s housing board has approved a landmark pledge by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to freeze nearly a million rent-controlled apartments.
The result of Thursday’s vote was met with cheers and chants from hundreds of people in Manhattan as the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) approved the moratorium on both one- and two-year leases.
Mamdani said in a statement that “the victory of New York City employers was historic”.
The board voted in favor of the policy 7-1, hours after the public resignation of one of its members, Christina Smyth, who accused the panel of bias and “disregarding its evidence” that homeowners are facing rising operating costs.
Smyth was one of three members appointed by former New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mamdani appointed six other members after taking office this year.
Smyth, one of the homeowners’ representatives on the board, said the outcome was predetermined by the mayor.
“The restructured board should have brought the leasehold,” he said. “Everything since then has been drama,” he said in a statement.
The chairperson of the board, Chantella Mitchell, said that the members of the board worked independently and with integrity.
In a statement on the rent freeze, he said “the full range of data before the board this year shows an economic climate where the majority of renters in stable housing are struggling to meet basic needs and cannot afford housing costs as housing costs continue to rise”.
The rental properties will be eligible for lease in all five boroughs of the city between October 2026 and September 2027. They include properties ranging from high-rise apartments to affordable subsidized units.
Tenants argued in discussions held before the vote that their income was not in line with inflation and that past rent increases did not refer to building repairs or improvements.
But landlord groups have warned that it will be more difficult to keep up with rising taxes, utilities and repairs due to the snow, leading to a worse situation for renters.
“Older rental properties are already struggling under rising operating costs, but the Board has chosen to ignore those realities,” said James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.
“This decision will mean less investment in maintenance and repairs, accelerating the deterioration of the homes that millions of New Yorkers call home,” he said.
When Mamdani campaigned for mayor late last year, his election promises focused on cost of living issues, with the freeze on rent being one of the key promises.
Changing the composition of the board was also one of the promises of the democratic mayor.
In a January 2025 video, Mamdani said that the terms of eight of the nine Adams RGB board appointees have expired and he will fill their vacancies if he becomes mayor, promising that he will “appoint only those who understand that homeowners are doing well”.
The first vote in May by the rental guidelines panel approved Mamdani’s plan to freeze the rentals of nearly a million apartments in New York.
The rent freeze has been used three times before between 2015 and 2021 under former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, but only for one lease year.
Mamdani’s rent freeze adds to the successful election of three congressmen backed by the mayor on Wednesday.
Two of the candidates endorsed by Mamdani, New York City Mayor Brad Lander and activist Darializa Avila Chevalier, are unelected Democratic congressmen.
In the third race, state assemblywoman Claire Valdez beat an opponent who had the support of a large portion of New York City’s Democratic Alliance.
