Owners of rent-stabilized housing saw their net revenues grow by 12% citywide in the most recent period, according to a closely watched Rent Guidelines Board report released Thursday. Tenant advocates say the growth should stave off major rent hikes this year, while landlord groups say the finding conceals severe distress in older buildings outside Manhattan.
The annual Income and Expense Study will inform the rent increases that will be voted on by the nine-member, mayor-appointed board in June. The new report, which covered 2023, found a citywide increase in net operating revenues that outpaced the previous year’s 10%. (The RGB ultimately approved a 2.75% rent increase on one-year leases last year.)
But the findings are skewed by geography: In Manhattan below 96th Street, incomes grew by 23%, compared to 11% in Upper Manhattan, 10% in Brooklyn, 11% in Queens and .08% in the Bronx. That still represents a more even result than 2022, when income grew by 42% in “Core Manhattan” but only .03% on average in the rest of the city.
The New York Apartment Association, which represents stabilized landlords, said its own analysis found a 2% drop in inflation-adjusted operating income for buildings built since 1974 outside the core of Manhattan. The group also said the RGB’s data was skewed by the inclusion of some 120,000 market-rate units alongside the roughly 600,000 stabilized apartments studied. (Net operating income is distinct from profit, and landlords say their net incomes must increase to have enough cash for mortgage payments and necessary upgrades.)
“This report shows a tale of two cities when it comes to regulated housing,” said Apartment Association CEO Kenny Burgos. “The vast majority of rent-stabilized apartments are in the outer-borough buildings. The data clearly shows disinvestment in these buildings from 2022 to 2023, which should alarm everyone.”
But the New York State Tenant Bloc, a newly formed advocacy group, said the results support a rent freeze for all 2.4 million stabilized tenants — something that happened three times under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, but never in three years under Mayor Eric Adams’ more landlord-friendly board.
“There’s no dispute: today’s report release shows that a rent freeze is necessary and more than justified,” said Cea Weaver, the group’s director.
Landlord groups continue to complain that the state’s 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, which limited landlords’ ability to raise rents to cover repair costs, have wreaked havoc on distressed, older buildings by making it unaffordable for owners to maintain them. Landlords succeeded in winning some modest tweaks to that law during last year’s state budget, which allowed landlords to raise rents to cover as much as $30,000 in repair costs compared to the previous limit of $15,000.
The latest RGB findings coincide with rent stabilization emerging as a major issue in the city’s mayoral race. Leftist candidate Zohran Mamdani has attracted grassroots support for his pledge to freeze stabilized rents, a promise that has also been made by fellow candidates state Sen. Jessica Ramos, former Assemblyman Michael Blake, and — with some conditions — Comptroller Brad Lander.
The 2025 report shows landlords’ fortunes improving compared to the years immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2023 report, for example, showed incomes declining by 9.1%, the largest in the study’s history.
By contrast, the 12.1% increase in operating incomes from 2022 to 2023 was the largest since at least 1990-1991. The average monthly rent in a building containing stabilized units in 2023 was $1,599, while operating costs were $1,160 per unit.
