The New York City Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) voted 7-1 on Thursday to freeze the rent for rent-stabilized apartments.
A summary of the rent-stabilized apartment guidelines adopted on Thursday indicates that “Together with such further adjustments as may be authorized by law, the annual adjustment for leases for apartments shall be” 0% for one-year and two-year leases starting “on or after October 1, 2026, and on or before September 30, 2027.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose prominent rent-freezing pledge marked a key plank of his Big Apple mayoral campaign last year, issued a statement hailing the board’s move.
“This is a historic victory for New York City tenants. 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,” the mayor declared in the statement.
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“I’m grateful for the board members’ thoughtful consideration of the data, including tenants’ ability to pay, cost of living and building operating costs. I’ll continue working to deliver a more affordable city by building and preserving affordable housing, lowering building operating costs like insurance, and ensuring tenants know their rights,” he added.
The board is stacked with six people appointed by Mamdani.
“Chantella Mitchell will serve as the Chair of the RGB; Sina Sinai, Lauren Melodia and Brandon Mancilla have been appointed as public representatives; Maksim Wynn will serve as an owner representative; and Adán Soltren has been reappointed as a tenant representative,” a February press release noted. “They join Arpit Gupta, Christina Smyth and Sagar Sharma on the nine-member board.”
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Smyth issued a statement announcing her immediate resignation on Thursday morning, prior to the board’s vote later that day.
“I am resigning because the process I was appointed to take part in is not administered the way the law requires. The Rent Guidelines Board has stopped being a fact-finding body. It has become a body that starts with an answer and vibe codes its way backward to justify it,” she asserted in a statement.
“This year’s RGB order was decided last year on the campaign trail. Then in February, the Mayor appointed six of the nine members of this board. This rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze. Everything since has been theater. The hearings, the reports, the public comment, the data. None of it was ever going to change the result,” she declared.
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The board “is mandated to establish rent adjustments for the approximately one million dwelling units subject to the Rent Stabilization Law in New York City,” according to the city.
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