For Some Reason, New York's Rent Regulations Don't Seem To Be Keeping Rents Low

New York City has one of the most expensive housing markets in the country among large cities, and maybe even the most expensive by some measures.  By contrast to most other parts of the country, the majority of housing units here are rented rather than owner-occupied.  Latest data from Zillow.com gives a city-wide average rent (across all apartment sizes and types) of $3650.  In Manhattan, according to this New York Post piece from August 12 (citing data from the Corcoran brokerage firm) the average rent has hit $6,655 per month.      

According to the politicians in power, the reason for these high rents is that greedy landlords are taking advantage of the tenants.  To deal with these greedy landlords, we have had rent regulations in place in various forms since World War II; but after some reforms in the 1990s, by the 2010s those were gradually diminishing in significance.  By 2019 a slight majority of the rental apartments, about 1.1 million, were outside the regulation system, with just under 1 million apartments rent-regulated.  

Then, in 2019, the State Legislature came under full control of the Democrats (after decades of partial Republican control), and the new majorities immediately set out to put the greedy landlords in their place.  The new legislature enacted the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which tightened up the rent regulation regime dramatically.  Among significant new provisions applying to the rent-regulated portion of the housing stock were (1) an end to ability to increase rents on vacancy, (2) very low caps on rent increases permitted after major renovations, (3) significant limits on any non-rent fees that could be charged to tenants, and more.  

Then in 2026 we got new Mayor Zohran Mamdani.  Under the rent laws, the Mayor controls something called the Rent Guidelines Board, which sets the annual increases that can be charged on lease renewals for the rent-regulated apartments.  Mamdani made a signature campaign promise that he would impose a rent freeze on the regulated apartments, and upon taking office he appointed new members of the RGB to make that promise happen.  In June, the RGB then went ahead and imposed a rent freeze in accordance with Mamdani’s promise.