What Is Rent Stabilization, and Why Is It an Issue in the NYC Mayor’s Race?

Few things are as coveted in New York City as a rent-stabilized apartment. Getting one can feel like securing a life jacket when surging rents are drowning everyone else.

Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor, has one — a $2,300 one-bedroom in Astoria, Queens, he said. In recent days, one of his rivals, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, has begun attacking him for it.

“Move out immediately and give your affordable housing back to an unhoused family,” Mr. Cuomo wrote on Friday in a social media post, referring to Mr. Mamdani and his wife as “rich people who don’t need it.” On Sunday, the former governor said he would propose a “Zohran’s law” that would shut many higher earners out of rent-stabilized housing.

Mr. Mamdani said at a news conference on Tuesday that the proposal showed Mr. Cuomo’s “petty vindictiveness” against him and would end up hurting New Yorkers.

Mr. Cuomo’s attack and the ensuing bickering reflect a longstanding debate over who should be allowed to benefit from rent stabilization, and highlight some common misconceptions about the program. Almost one million apartments in New York City are rent stabilized — close to half of all rental units — and some two million people live in those homes.

While most of those renters don’t make as much as Mr. Mamdani, who earns $142,000 as a lawmaker, he is not an outlier: About 16 percent of rent-stabilized households earn at least $150,000, according to an analysis of city data by the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit watchdog.

So, what is rent stabilization, and who is it for?

Here’s what to know.

What is rent stabilization? (Hint: It is not rent control.)

Rent stabilization and rent control are two similar, but different, things.

Both are forms of rent regulation created in the mid-20th century to protect New Yorkers from sharp rent spikes when housing was scarce and landlords wielded a lot of power.

The programs, while protecting against eviction, displacement and instability, weren’t necessarily about reserving apartments for lower-income people.

Rent-controlled apartments have a maximum rent that can be reduced if the landlord doesn’t maintain “essential services” like heat. The state resets the figure every two years.

Under rent stabilization, by contrast, a nine-member board appointed by the mayor determines the percentage that rents in stabilized apartments can increase each year. In making its decision, the board considers the financial struggles of renters and how much money landlords need to keep their apartments in good shape.

Mr. Mamdani has promised to “freeze the rent” in stabilized apartments if he is elected.

Who came up with these programs?

The federal government enacted rent and other price controls during World War II because housing resources were limited and officials were worried about inflation. The state and, eventually, the city kept some form of rent control in place after the war, according to a history compiled by city officials.

Since then, the number of rent-controlled apartments has declined to about 24,000 today.

Rent stabilization, on the other hand, started in 1969, and was later expanded to generally cover apartments in buildings with at least six units that were built before 1974.

The system applies only when the city has a “housing emergency,” defined as when the vacancy rate is less than 5 percent. (The city has never come out of a housing emergency.) According to the most recent survey, the current vacancy rate is 1.4 percent.

Who lives in rent-stabilized apartments?

Many have come to think of rent-stabilized units as an affordable option for lower-income people. The data mostly reflects that.

The median household income for rent-stabilized tenants is about $60,000, compared with $90,800 for market-rate households. More than one-quarter of all rent-stabilized households earn less than $25,000 a year. About one in 10 rent-stabilized households earn at least $200,000, according to the Citizens Budget Commission.

Mr. Mamdani has said that he found his apartment on StreetEasy when he was earning an annual salary of only $47,000. (Rent-stabilized units mostly have the same application process as market-rate units, and in some cases can be passed to relatives.)

Now Mr. Mamdani earns six figures as an assemblyman, and his wife, Rama Duwaji, is an animator and illustrator. On his 2024 financial disclosure form, Mr. Mamdani reported receiving between $1,000 and $5,000 in royalties from music (he was a rapper), and he said he owned four acres in Uganda, valued at between $150,000 and $200,000.

(Mr. Cuomo, who has an estimated net worth of some $10 million, according to Forbes, told The New York Times he paid $8,000 in rent for an apartment in Manhattan.)

Mr. Mamdani said this week that he planned to move out of his apartment eventually but that he lived “rent-free” in Mr. Cuomo’s head.

By design, the rent in stabilized apartments hasn’t gone up as fast as it has in market-rate units. The divergence has grown in recent years as the city’s severe housing shortage has sent market rents soaring.

The median rent in a stabilized unit, according to a 2023 city survey, was about $1,500, compared with about $2,000 for market-rate apartments.

More than 45 percent of rent-stabilized households spend over 30 percent of their income on rent, which is known as being “rent burdened.” That figure is about 40 percent for market-rate rentals.

About 29 percent of rent-stabilized tenants are white, compared with 39 percent for market-rate renters. Roughly 44 percent of rent-stabilized tenants were born outside of the United States, compared with 38 percent in market-rate apartments.

‘Rent stabilized’ doesn’t always mean ‘cheap.’

A property tax break program that many developers used to build new apartments in the city has created a sector of rent-stabilized units that are much more expensive than the typical apartment built before 1974.

For example, in 2024, more than 25,000 rent-stabilized apartments were added to the city’s housing stock, according to city data. The median rent of those units was $3,105 — more than twice the typical rent-stabilized unit.

A portion of the apartments in most big new buildings are set aside for people earning middle-class wages, as a condition of the tax break. Those units are also mostly rent stabilized.

Some economists oppose rent stabilization and similar programs because they say they make other apartments more expensive, especially in the long run.

According to a city survey, only a quarter of households living in rent-stabilized units moved in 2022, compared with nearly 60 percent in market-rate homes.

If rent-stabilized tenants aren’t moving as much, that reduces the overall size of the housing market, creating a bigger supply constraint that leads to higher market rents.

There has long been debate over who should benefit.

The law that Mr. Cuomo is proposing would require people moving into rent-stabilized units to spend at least 30 percent of their earnings on rent. If an apartment rents for $2,500 a month, which is $30,000 for the whole year, the household’s income couldn’t be more than $100,000, he said.

The idea is to prevent people who earn a lot of money — and have a lot of options — from snatching up the few affordable apartments available to people who earn less.

Tenant advocates and at least one recent ally of Mr. Cuomo have criticized the proposal.

But it reflects a continuing debate over who, during a time of housing scarcity, should benefit from rent stabilization: anyone, including the wealthy, as the system allows today, or only people with the greatest financial need.