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It just got real. All rent-controlled apartments in NYC are prohibited from raising rent a single dollar for the next 12 months.
This should be headed to the courts, and Mamdani should lose. Courts have always required rent controllers to permit landlords a reasonable profit. Zero is not a reasonable regulation. Zero is “up yours.” Zero is arbitrary. Zero is a power play. Zero is “we don’t give a damn about your profit.”
When they go to court, the landlords will have plenty of ammunition. The mayor’s top housing staff have been recorded saying that harsh rent control is a means to the end of more and more housing becoming owned by the government. Mamdani wants all private landlords to give up and sell cheap.
Overly harsh rent control is a “taking” under the Constitution. It is time for a court to tell Mamdani that he is not God. It is time to tell Mamdani that landlords are entitled to due process and that the city can’t take over without paying fair market value for the properties.
BTW, the vacancy rate in NYC is under 2%. That is insanely low. Fair market value for apartments in a city with a minuscule vacancy rate should be quite high. Mamdani can’t afford to give landlords due process and fair value.
Any city with a <2% vacancy rate desperately needs a building boom. Private investors won’t finance the boom due to fear of rent control. Zero heightens that fear.
This was widely predicted before the election. NYC is getting what they voted for. Good and Hard.
G-Pub
Discussion (32)
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I hope the courts react as you expect.
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Maybe this will even lead to courts ruling that Rent Control in general is illegal.
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They force you to use government money.
Then they force inflation.
Then everybody complains about what happens from the inflation.
Then people whine about socialism and populism taking off.
Then the government says it will fix it with more force.
Then it gets worse.
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Zero is a request for slum lords.
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In a past post to social media, Mamdani’s ‘Tenant Advocate’ - Cea Weaver - asserted:
“We decided that fighting for rent control was a strategic and critical first step in the fight for full social housing,“
Step One complete.
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