Housing & Real Estate Reviewed July 2026
How rent stabilization actually works
About one million apartments have their rent increases set by a nine-member board every June. Here is the machinery, straight from the documents that run it.
The numbers that matter
- This year's increase
- 3% on a one-year renewal lease, 4.5% on a two-year, for leases starting October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026 (RGB Order #57, adopted June 30, 2025)
- Apartments covered
- About one million, by the Rent Guidelines Board's own count (RGB Rent Stabilization FAQ, read July 2026)
- Buildings covered
- Generally buildings of six or more units built before 1974; also buildings taking J-51, 421-a, or 421-g tax breaks (DHCR Fact Sheet #1, January 2024)
- Deregulation
- High-rent and high-income deregulation repealed as of June 14, 2019 (DHCR Fact Sheet #1, January 2024)
What rent stabilization is
Rent stabilization is not a subsidy and it is not public housing. It is a set of rules that caps how much your landlord can raise the rent each year and guarantees you the right to renew your lease. The city's own Rent Guidelines Board, the board that sets the cap, puts the system's scale plainly:
The system was enacted in 1969 when rents were rising sharply in many post-war buildings. The system has been extended and amended frequently, and now about one million apartments in the City are covered by rent stabilization. Rent stabilized tenants are protected from sharp increases in rent and have the right to renew their leases.
Roughly a million apartments in a city of about 3.6 million homes. This is not a niche program. It is the single largest block of housing in New York.
Who sets your rent increase
Every June, the nine members of the Rent Guidelines Board, all appointed by the Mayor, vote on how much stabilized rents can rise for leases starting that October. The vote lands as a numbered order. The current one is Order #57, and this is the part that touches your lease:
For a one-year lease commencing on or after October 1, 2025 and on or before September 30, 2026: 3% ... For a two-year lease commencing on or after October 1, 2025 and on or before September 30, 2026: 4.5%
That is the whole ballgame for a stabilized renewal: two percentages, one board vote, every year. The board has voted a number every year since 1969; the full run, from Order #1 on, is in the board's own chart, linked in the sources below.
The order carries the force of law. A landlord who charges more than the guideline on a renewal is overcharging, and the state can make them pay it back. The June vote is also why the same fight (tenants asking for a freeze, owners asking for more) plays out at the same public hearings every spring.
Is your apartment covered?
Coverage runs with the building, not with you. The state agency that administers the system, Homes and Community Renewal (its rent office still goes by DHCR), draws the lines this way:
Rent stabilization generally covers buildings built after 1947 and before 1974, and apartments removed from rent control. It also covers buildings that receive J-51, 421-a and 421-g tax benefits.
The tax-benefit route matters: plenty of newer buildings are stabilized because the developer took a tax break, sometimes only for the life of the break. Your glassy 2015 tower can be stabilized while the brownstone next door is not.
The only way to know for sure is to ask the state for your apartment's rent history, which DHCR will send you for free. Your lease should say it, but leases have been wrong before, and the rent history is the document that settles it.
What changed in 2019
For a quarter century the system had an exit door: when the rent crossed a threshold, or the tenant's income did, the apartment could leave stabilization forever. Albany closed it with the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act. DHCR states the change without ceremony:
Prior to June 14, 2019, the rent laws provided for the deregulation of apartments based on rents exceeding a certain threshold or based on the occupants’ income and rents exceeding certain thresholds. Pursuant to HSTPA, these forms of deregulation were repealed as of June 14, 2019.
The Legislature was explicit about why. The law's own findings, the part of a statute where Albany states its reasons, read like an indictment of the old exit door:
The legislature further recognizes that severe disruption of the rental housing market has occurred and threatens to be exacerbated as a result of the present state of the law in relation to the deregulation of housing accommodations upon vacancy. The situation has permitted speculative and profiteering practices and has brought about the loss of vital and irreplaceable affordable housing for working persons and families.
Owners' groups sued, arguing the 2019 law went too far; the system's constitutionality has so far survived the challenges. The fight over whether it should moved back to where it always lives, the RGB's June vote and the Albany session.
The questions New Yorkers actually ask
How much can my rent go up this year if I'm stabilized?
For a renewal lease starting between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026, the Rent Guidelines Board's Order #57 allows 3% on a one-year lease and 4.5% on a two-year lease. A new order, with new percentages, is voted every June.
How do I find out if my apartment is rent stabilized?
Request your apartment's rent history from the state (DHCR's Ask HCR portal does it online, free). Coverage generally means a building of six or more units built before 1974, or a newer building taking a J-51, 421-a, or 421-g tax break, but the rent history is the document that settles it.
Can my apartment still be deregulated when I leave?
Not on rent or income grounds. The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act repealed high-rent and high-income deregulation as of June 14, 2019. Apartments stabilized only because of a temporary tax benefit can still leave the system when the benefit ends, under the rules of that program.
Who is on the Rent Guidelines Board?
Nine members, all appointed by the Mayor: two representing tenants, two representing owners, and five representing the general public. That composition is why mayoral elections quietly decide rent increases.
The documents
The public records this page draws on. Read them yourself:
- 2025 Apartment & Loft Order #57 (rent adjustments for leases commencing October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026)
- Rent Guidelines Board Apartment Orders #1 through #57 (summary chart)
- Rent Stabilization FAQs
- Fact Sheet #1: Rent Stabilization and Rent Control (FS-01, January 2024)
- Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (S.6458, enacted June 14, 2019)
This is the background. The brief is what’s happening now.
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