The NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) recently cast its preliminary vote for allowable rent increases on the city’s nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments. At a public meeting on April 30, the board approved proposed hikes ranging from 1.75 percent to 4.25 percent for one-year leases and 4.75 percent to 7.75 percent for two-year leases. 

While these ranges are not final, they lay the groundwork for rent increases set to take effect on leases signed Oct. 1 and beyond.

What you need to know: Landlord groups argue that even the high end of the proposed ranges falls short of what’s needed to offset a 6.3 percent year-over-year increase in operating costs. On the other side, tenant groups say the proposed hikes will further destabilize low-income renters already grappling with high inflation and a citywide vacancy rate of just 1.4 percent. 

In a statement on the preliminary vote, Mayor Eric Adams struck a middle tone, urging the board to consider “modest” adjustments but sharply criticized the upper end of the two-year lease range as “far too unreasonable of a burden for tenants, especially as our entire city is feeling the squeeze of a 1.4 percent housing vacancy rate and a decades-long affordability crisis.”

The bottom line: The final vote is scheduled for late June, following a round of public hearings in May and early June. While the board isn’t required to stay within the preliminary ranges, it has historically done so.