The freeze will be stopped in court
REBNY and the New York Apartment Association
Housing & Real Estate Active Updated Jul 3, 2026
The rent freeze
Mamdani campaigned on a guarantee to freeze rents for the city's roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, home to about 2.4 million tenants, after four straight years of increases under Adams totaling about 12% on one-year leases. The Rent Guidelines Board he appointed delivered the first freeze covering both one- and two-year leases in the board's history on June 25, 2026. Landlord groups say the vote ignored the board's own cost data and are weighing lawsuits, though none had been filed as of early July 2026.
The story so far
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Jun 28, 2026 Latest
Arpit Gupta, the lone dissenting board member, said there was no City Hall interference in the vote, undercutting one possible line of legal attack.
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Jun 26, 2026
Mamdani publicly celebrated the freeze while landlord groups laid out their legal strategy: argue the board disregarded its own data showing a 5.3% rise in operating costs, with one in ten stabilized buildings not covering expenses from rent.
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Jun 25, 2026
The board voted 7 to 1 to freeze rents on one- and two-year lease renewals, the first two-year freeze in its history. Landlord representative Christina Smyth resigned the morning of the vote, writing that "this year's RGB order was decided last year on the campaign trail." REBNY and the New York Apartment Association immediately threatened lawsuits.
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Jun 25, 2026
The Rent Guidelines Board headed into its vote at Museo del Barrio in East Harlem with six of its nine members appointed by Mayor Mamdani, who campaigned on the freeze.
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Feb 18, 2026
Mamdani announced six appointments to the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board, naming New York Community Trust program director Chantella Mitchell as chair, appointing public members Sina Sinai, Lauren Melodia, and Brandon Mancilla and owner member Maksim Wynn, and reappointing Legal Aid Society attorney Adan Soltren as a tenant representative.
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Nov 4, 2025
Mamdani won the general election with over 50 percent of the vote to Cuomo's 42 percent and Curtis Sliwa's 7 percent, with more than 2 million ballots cast, turnout the city had not seen in half a century.
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Jun 30, 2025
Six days after the primary, the Adams-era board took its final vote before the mayoral transition, raising stabilized rents 3 percent on one-year leases and 4.5 percent on two-year leases.
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Jun 24, 2025
Mamdani, who campaigned on the pledge "As mayor, I will freeze the rent every year that I'm in office. That's a guarantee," won the Democratic mayoral primary in an upset, taking 44 percent of first-choice votes as Andrew Cuomo conceded on election night.
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Jun 17, 2024
The board approved increases of 2.75 percent on one-year leases and 5.25 percent on two-year leases, the third straight annual hike under Adams. Over Adams's four years the board raised one-year rents by a combined total of about 12 percent.
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Jun 21, 2022
Under Mayor Eric Adams, the board voted 5 to 4 to raise stabilized rents 3.25 percent on one-year leases and 5 percent on two-year leases, the highest increase in nearly a decade. Adams said the decision would be a burden to tenants while acknowledging landlords faced financial strain.
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Jun 1, 2020
In June 2020, during the pandemic, the board voted 6 to 3 to freeze rents on one-year renewals and on the first year of two-year leases, with a 1 percent increase in the second year, effective October 1, 2020. It was the third one-year freeze of the de Blasio era; the board rejected the tenant proposal for a full two-year freeze 3 to 6.
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Jun 1, 2016
In June 2016, the Rent Guidelines Board under Mayor Bill de Blasio froze rents on one-year lease renewals for a second consecutive year while approving a 2 percent increase on two-year leases. City Limits noted the board had historically delivered at least modest increases even during severe recessions.
On the record
The checkable commitments in this fight, tracked until they are kept or broken.
Freeze the rent for rent-stabilized tenants
Mayor Zohran Mamdani (campaign pledge)
“As mayor, I will freeze the rent every year that I'm in office. That's a guarantee.”
The Rent Guidelines Board voted the freeze 7 to 1 on June 25, 2026, covering one- and two-year renewals. The pledge was multi-year; this covers leases through September 2027, so the board's 2027 vote is the next test.
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