In May, landlord groups wanted to raise rents in the shrinking pool of 985,000 rent-stabilized units by 5.5% for a one-year lease and 9.5% for a two-year lease. Instead, they were "disappointed" with increases of 1% and 2.75%. It could have been much worse for them, considering that Mayor de Blasio initially promised a freeze, but now these rentiers want us to understand that they can't live like this. They simply need New Yorkers to pay more rent!
The Times offers them a shoulder:
“Politically, I’ve never seen a climate more dangerous than I’m facing now,” said Jimmy Silber, co-president of Small Property Owners of New York, a landlord advocacy group.
“Where does the city get most of its money?” asked Reshit Gjinovic, who owns a six-unit building in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. “It comes from landlords and taxes. I hope he wakes up.”
Mr. Gjinovic said the market rate for his two unregulated apartments in Bay Ridge was no higher than $1,400, well under the $2,500 threshold that landlords in wealthier areas reach to deregulate the units.
This year, for the first time, he said, his building did not generate enough revenue to cover the rising expenses, including higher taxes, insurance and water bills, as well as $31,000 for a new boiler and pointing work.
Funny how it's the guy from Bay Ridge with the mercurial boiler who is asking for across the board rent increases in the paper of record, and not, say, Tishman Speyer, Pinnacle Group, or Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate Group, or any of the other corporate firms that control the majority of these units.
The landlords are also fighting the efforts of tenants groups (and the mayor) to repeal a law that allows them to deregulate a vacant apartment once the rent rises above $2,500.
“That one apartment where you can get $2,500, all of a sudden you have an infusion of funds that help the owner make expenses,” [Silber] said.
Since 1990, operating expenses for landlords have increased by 144% but rent has increased by 178%. According to the Rent Guidelines Board [PDF], the net operating income for landlords has increased for eight straight years; from 2011 to 2012 it jumped by 9.6%. How big was your raise that year?
Mayor de Blasio is trying to build 80,000 new affordable apartments and maintain 120,000 of them over the next 10 years. Last year, the city lost 5,000 rent stabilized apartments to deregulation.
