RGB Approves Two-Year Rent Freeze, Delivers on Mamdani Promise

The Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) froze the rent for New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized lofts and apartments with one- and two-year leases, affecting roughly one million units.

While the RGB during former Mayor Bill deBlasio’s term had delivered a rent freeze on one-year leases, the vote on June 25 marked the first time it was extended to two-year leases.

“This is a histotric victory for New York City tenants,” NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement after the guidelines were finalized. “After reviewing the data and hearing from New Yorkers across the city, the independent RGB has delivered a freeze on one-year leases, and the first-ever freeze on two- year leases in our city’s history.”

“This is the relief that working people across our city deserve,” Mamdani added.

In the new guidelines, approved and adopted in a final 7-to-1 vote on June 25, one- and two-year rent-stabilized apartment and loft leases will be frozen, with no annual increase. Frozen leases for eligible units will take into effect between October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2027. Additionally, rent-stabilized hotels will also have an annual rent increase of 0%.

In his efforts to deliver on his 2025 rent campaign promise, Mamdani had appointed six new members to the nine member RGB back in February, including the new Chair Chantella Mitchell. As an independent organization, the RGB is charged with determining rent adjustments each year, considering NYC economic and housing trends. The lone dissenting vote was from Arpit Gupta, a carryover appointee from the Eric Adams era.

Maksim Wynn, an owner representative on the RGB said testimony and data findings showed the RGB the benefits of the rent freeze for owners and tenants alike.

“Past boards have reasonably assumed that the best way to ensure sustainable operations is to increase legal rents,” Wynn wrote in a statement released at the board’s June 25 public meeting. “However, the data this board has reviewed suggests that for buildings with income to expense issues, increasing legal rents may, counterintuitively, decrease income.”

Hours before the June 25 vote, RGB board member Christina Smyth resigned from the board, alleging a ‘broken process.’

“This rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze,” Smyth wrote in her resignation letter. “Everything since has been theater. The hearings, the reports, the public comment, the data. None of it was ever going to change the result.”

“Please understand me when I tell you that a freeze does not help the people it claims to protect,” Smyth wrote.

That thought was certainly echoed by James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York which represents landlords.

“This decision will mean less investment in maintenance and repairs, accelerating the deterioration of the housing stock that millions of New Yorkers call home,” he said. “Tonight’s vote may be politically popular, but it will make New York’s housing crisis worse.”

Chantella Mitchell, chair of the RGB, said the guidelines will preserve affordability for New Yorkers and reflect current housing trends.

“In weighing this year’s guidelines, I consider the full evidentiary record and its implications,” Mitchell wrote in a statement released at the board’s June 25 public meeting. “The data make clear that current economic conditions place meaningful constraints on tenants, while also showing that, in aggregate, most owners remain able to meet rising costs without experiencing comparable levels of financial distress. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that a small subset of owners are facing severe financial pressure.”

“Despite clear evidence that tenants concentrated in those buildings cannot absorb additional rent increases, these owners’ need for relief is real and, in some cases, urgent,” Mitchell added.

“Organized tenants made history today,” New York State Tenant Bloc Executive Director Sumathy Kumar said in a statement after the vote. “Today, the RGB has ensured rent stabilization works for its true purpose: to keep New York affordable and keep New Yorkers in New York.”

Mamdani said he approved the board’s decision, thanking them for their efforts to preserve affordability in the new guidelines.

The landlords said they intended to appeal the decision and Smyth said she would support the landlords in that effort.

Mamdani thanked the RGB for helping him deliver on one of his signature campaign promises. “I’m grateful for the board members’ thoughtful consideration of the data, including tenants’ ability to pay, cost of living and building operating costs.”