New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani last week released his Rental Ripoff Hearing Report, with 23 policy recommendations allegedly built on testimony from five borough hearings held earlier this year. Perhaps wanting to preempt further criticism that his administration’s policies are hostile to landlords—most recently, a Rent Guidelines Board freeze on rent increases for rent-stabilized tenants—the report acknowledges that “High-Road” landlords exist and deserve the city’s support. But not yet: the report includes even more recommendations that will be economically detrimental to the private housing industry.
Mamdani clearly thinks such policies are good for him politically, but he’s playing with fire. As New York Apartment Association CEO Kenny Burgos noted, “You cannot fine a building into good repair.” The city is driving out private capital but lacks the financial capacity to step in and manage rental housing.
Some of the report’s recommendations would be particularly damaging. For example, the report proposes that the city council pass legislation that would limit landlords to asking for income verification or a credit check, but not both. Further, the landlord, not the applicant, would pay the cost of a credit check. These measures are meant to address the reality that, with vacant apartments in short supply, landlords can sift through tenant applications and find the household most likely to pay the rent reliably. The Mamdani administration evidently believes this gives an undue advantage to applicants who make a good living, pay their bills promptly, and stay out of debt. But the upshot of this proposed fix would be to limit the information that landlords can obtain on prospective tenants, increasing business risk while shifting more costs to the property owners…