New bill would require city to develop plan for 50,000+ vacant rent-stabilized units
A new bill introduced in the City Council on Thursday would require Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to develop a plan to address the city’s thousands of vacant rent-stabilized apartments. According to The City Reporter, there were about 57,000 empty rent-stabilized units citywide in 2025. Sponsored by Council Member Farah Louis, the legislation calls on the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to conduct an analysis of the city’s stock of vacant rent-stabilized apartments, including factors and trends that contribute to the vacant units.
The vacancy rate of rent-stabilized apartments was roughly 5.6 percent last year, an increase from 3.7 percent in 2016.
Council Speaker Julie Menin supports the bill, calling it crucial to the city’s effort to address the housing shortage. The overall rental vacancy rate is 1.4 percent, historically low and far below the 5 percent target, according to the Fair Housing Growth Strategy report. The rate is less than 1 percent for the most affordable apartments.
“In the midst of an affordable housing crisis, it’s unconscionable that over 50,000 rent-stabilized units are sitting vacant and off the market, right here in New York City, while so many New Yorkers are struggling to find an affordable place to live,” Menin said during the council’s Stated Meeting on Thursday.
The bill requires HPD to look at certain conditions to explain vacant units, such as financial conditions for landlords, like inflation, cost of renovation, and building operating costs, and create a plan for bringing them back on the market. A report would be due within 60 days of the bill becoming law.
According to the text of the bill, certain measures to encourage owners to put the apartments back on the market could be some sort of “grants, funding, subsidies, loans, tax incentives, and other financial assistance.”
Some landlords say they have to keep rent-stabilized apartments empty because they don’t make enough profit to afford needed repairs and renovations. The 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act capped recoverable renovation costs at $15,000. According to a report from the Rent Guidelines Board, landlords collected an average monthly rent of $1,681 per unit in 2024.
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