New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board handed Mayor Zohran Mamdani a major win on Thursday, voting overwhelmingly to halt rent increases on roughly one million regulated apartments for as long as two years — a promise he made during his campaign.
The board’s 7-1 decision set rent increases at zero percent for both one-year and two-year leases beginning in October. Inside a Manhattan museum auditorium packed with hundreds of tenants, the announcement was met with cheering and whistles.
“This is a historic victory for New York City tenants,” Mamdani said in a statement following the vote. “This is the relief that working people across our city deserve.”
The vote marked the end of a weeks-long annual process in which the board decides how much landlords may raise rents on stabilized apartments — housing that is home to roughly one in four New Yorkers. In making its decision, the board considers factors such as wages, inflation, property maintenance costs, taxes, and landlord income.
According to the board’s own 2025 study, the average monthly rent for a regulated apartment stands at $1,599 — a stark contrast to the $3,950 median rent for a newly leased apartment across the city, as reported by listings agency StreetEasy.
Mamdani, who describes himself as a democratic socialist and has pledged to make New York City more affordable, has appointed six of the board’s nine members since taking office in January. He selected individuals he believes are sympathetic to tenants’ concerns.
Hours before the vote, however, a board member representing landlords resigned in protest, claiming the mayor had stacked the board and that the outcome was never in doubt. Christina Smyth, who was appointed by Mamdani’s predecessor and served as one of two landlord representatives on the panel, accused the board of failing its legal obligation to remain impartial.
“The rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze,” Smyth said upon resigning. “Everything since has been theater.”
Board Chair Chantella Mitchell, a Mamdani appointee, pushed back on that characterization, saying that board members and staff conducted themselves with independence and integrity throughout the process.
The second landlord representative on the board, Maksim Wynn — also a Mamdani appointee — was met with boos from the crowd as he read a lengthy statement ahead of the vote. That reaction quickly shifted to celebration when he concluded his remarks and voted in favor of the rent freeze.
During public hearings leading up to Thursday’s decision, tenants called for a rent freeze or even a rent reduction, arguing that their incomes have not kept pace with inflation and rising costs. Rent freezes previously occurred three times under Mayor Bill de Blasio, between 2015 and 2021, though those applied only to one-year leases.
Landlord groups argued that a freeze would make it more difficult for property owners to maintain their buildings and said some are already struggling to cover mortgage payments. Some landlords — ranging from small, single-building owners to large private equity investors — contend they are forced to raise rents on unregulated, market-rate apartments to offset losses on their rent-stabilized units.
Following his election, Mamdani relocated from a rent-regulated one-bedroom apartment in Queens, where he paid roughly $2,300 a month, to the mayor’s official five-bedroom residence in Manhattan.
Thursday’s vote capped off a strong week for Mamdani. He also celebrated the wins of three left-wing candidates in competitive races for Democratic Party nominations to represent New York in the U.S. Congress.
