Analysis by Small Property Owners of New York reveals Rent Guidelines Board decline

Manhattan, NY A comprehensive analysis released by the Small Property Owners of New York (SPONY) finds that the rents of the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartments have significantly declined in real terms since 2016.

The analysis finds that Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) one-year increases have failed to keep pace with inflation, widening the gap between rent-regulated rents and the cost of operating and maintaining rent-stabilized housing. If this gap continues to grow, it will accelerate financial distress for already struggling small property owners, leading to deferred maintenance and repairs, and ultimately fewer apartments in a market amid an affordable housing crisis. 

SPONY’s analysis focused on the year-over-year comparison of RGB rent increases and the New York metropolitan area’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) from 2000 to 2025. 

Among the findings: 

In eight of the past ten years (2016–2025), RGB-approved rent increases were below inflation in the New York metro area; 

• During rent freezes in 2016, 2017, and 2021 under the de Blasio administration, metro-area inflation totaled about 6.93% cumulatively (compounded), resulting in a negative real rent change of about 6.48% for stabilized apartments; 

• Over the past 10 years (2016-2025), the one-year rent increases set by the RGB compounded to about 14.84%, dramatically lower than the 32.44% cumulative New York area CPI during the same period, which resulted in a negative 13.29% real rent change for rent-stabilized apartments. 

SPONY warns that stabilized rents have been losing ground to inflation for the past decade. The report demonstrates that small owners of rent-stabilized properties are consistently burdened by inflation, as the costs of operating and maintaining affordable housing—including property taxes, mortgages, utilities, insurance premiums, and labor—have all surged since 2016. 

“Mayor Mamdani must drop his rent freeze plans, or he will harm the New Yorkers he claims to be protecting,” said Ann Korchak, SPONY board president. “Guidelines that aren’t keeping pace with inflation, along with laws like the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA), are detrimental to renters, owners, and affordable housing. Tens of thousands of rent-stabilized apartments are empty today because HSTPA restrictions have stripped small owners of the financial wherewithal needed for costly rehabilitation of apartments when long-time tenants move out. RGB’s annual rent increases are our only lifeline.”