NYC Rent Guidelines Board votes to freeze rents on 1 million rent-stabilized units

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Mamdani Gets His Rent Freeze

But as the resignation in protest of a member of the Rent Guidelines Board suggests, the battle may not be over.

By Christian Browne Publication Date: 2026-06-26 18:30:00

From the very outset of his mayoral campaign, Zohran Mamdani promised to “freeze the rent” for tenants in the 1 million apartments subject to New York City’s rent stabilization law. After taking office, he appointed a majority of the city’s Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), the body that sets annual “adjustments” in rents for stabilized units. Last night, the board voted to fulfill his pledge.

One of Mamdani’s early campaign videos captured the then little-known assemblyman running the November 2024 New York City Marathon. He ran through the five boroughs wearing a “Zohran Will Freeze It!” shirt, proclaiming, “As mayor, I will freeze the rent every year that I’m in office. That’s a guarantee.”

On New Year’s Day 2025, Mamdani plunged into the ocean off Coney Island, immersing himself in the freezing water to promote freezing the rent. In the accompanying video, he explained that, as mayor, he would control the appointments to the Rent Guidelines Board. He touted the fact that the terms of eight of the RGB’s nine members were about to expire and pledged to appoint “only those who understand that landlords are doing just fine.” He closed with a toast: “Here’s to a new year, a new mayor, and the same rent!”

In May 2025, the Mamdani campaign released an ad entirely dedicated to the rent freeze. “I’m Zohran Mamdani and I am running to freeze the rent for every rent stabilized tenant.” “It’s true. As your next mayor, I will freeze your rent.”

By a 7-1 vote of the eight members present, the board has now enacted a rent freeze that, for the first time in its 56-year history, prohibits any rental increase on both one- and two-year leases. True to his Polar Plunge promise, Mamdani was able to appoint six of the board’s nine members, and his appointees redeemed his “guarantee,” just as he said they would. The lone dissenting vote came from NYU Stern Professor and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Arpit Gupta, who soon afterward explained in City Journal why rent control “produces deteriorating assets and, eventually, public bailouts and takeovers.”

The mayor’s RGB triumph, however, sets the stage for the defeat of his most famous policy. As pointed out last summer, contrary to Mamdani’s gleeful proclamations, the mayor has no power to set rents. While he appoints its members, the RGB is an independent, “quasi-judicial” body required to act in a manner similar to that of a court.

The RGB is mandated to make its determinations based upon objective evidentiary factors set forth in §26-510(b) of the city’s Administrative Code. The board is required to review “the economic condition of the residential real estate industry” by examining:

• (i) real estate taxes and sewer and water rates,
• (ii) gross operating maintenance costs (including insurance rates, governmental fees, cost of fuel and labor costs),
• (iii) costs and availability of financing (including effective rates of interest),
• (iv) over-all supply of housing accommodations and over-all vacancy rates,
• and other relevant “data.”

Upon the RGB’s review of the appropriate factual information, the law requires the board to file “findings” with the city clerk on or before July 1, annually, to justify its decision on rental adjustments. There is no such thing as a four-year-long rent freeze.

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