Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's pledge to freeze rents on stabilized apartments in New York City is unsettling small-scale landlords who say the democratic socialist's housing policy threatens to put them out of business.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the city's small landlords have contended with higher interest rates and soaring inflation since the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of them told the outlet that the rent they collect barely covers their monthly expenses and they consider themselves lucky if they're able to just break even.
The city's rent-stabilization laws primarily apply to apartment buildings with at least six units built before 1974, and many mom-and-pop landlords operate properties with around this number.
Sales of rent-stabilized multifamily buildings with 10 or more units have dropped since 2019, the Journal reported, when New York City rent laws prevented many landlords from raising rents on more than one million stabilized apartments.
Paul Rahimian, founder and CEO of commercial real-estate lender Parkview Financial, said that owners are being forced to slash prices by an average of 10% because many city listings over the past two months have remained on the market for weeks longer than is typical.
A Mamdani victory in November would make it even more difficult for building owners to sell, he told the Journal.
"The mayoral primary was the nail in the coffin," Rahimian said. "It would be the kiss of death if he won."
The Mamdani campaign says he supports the "Comparative and Alternative Hardship" exemption for landlords who can justify their need for rent increases.
"Zohran is committed to protecting the livelihoods of small landlords and maintaining a stable, functioning property market," Dora Pekec, a Mamdani campaign spokeswoman, told the Journal.
Others, like Cea Weaver, director of NYS Tenant Bloc, whose group endorsed Mamdani, say that landlords have greater uncertainties to deal with than frozen rents. She cited rising insurance costs and deportations of illegal immigrant workers who she said are often relied on by small landlords for jobs such as building superintendents.
"Freezing the rent is not make-or-break for a landlord," Weaver said.
City and state lawmakers passed legislation last year that gives landlords more flexibility to increase stabilized rents for renovations, but Ebony Hannibal told the Journal she still feels uneasy.
She and other small-scale landlords don't have the financial flexibility that allows larger landlords to leave units vacant and operate with a loss.
Hannibal, a 34-year-old mail carrier, said she has been waiting a year for her mortgage lender to refinance her multifamily property in Brooklyn.
She told the outlet that she plans to use the money she saves to renovate each of the building's four apartments. Hannibal said she is currently in the process of evicting three tenants – two who each owe $40,000 in back payments and another who owes $29,000 – and is barely able to make her $3,800 monthly mortgage payment.
But if Mamdani becomes the next mayor of New York City, Hannibal says she will sell her building.
"Every single landlord in my neighborhood has similar experiences," she said.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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