NYC rent freeze sparks outcry from building owners over rising repair costs
With the Rent Guidelines Board voting 7-1 to freeze rents for stabilized units, building owners are raising the alarm about repairs they were already struggling to afford, under their existing revenue.
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With the Rent Guidelines Board voting 7-1 to freeze rents for stabilized units, building owners are raising the alarm about repairs they were already struggling to afford, under their existing revenue.
Chris Athineos, who owns a rent-controlled building in Bay Ridge, said the policy does not account for the rising cost of necessary repairs and upgrades required to keep older buildings safe and compliant.
He says data, compiled by Small Property Owners of New York, that incorporated the price of repairs into the profit figure calculated by the board, causing one member to resign in protest Thursday morning ahead of the vote.
Athineos told News 12 Brooklyn that routine maintenance and legally mandated improvements continue to grow more expensive, especially for specialty projects like retrofitting a building from the 1930s to comply with 2026 regulations.
“Plumbing, electrical, roof, masonry, lead paint abatement. I mean, the list goes on and on and on,” Athineos said. “The city requires us to upgrade this technology, yet they’re not giving us the income to do it.”
Athineos said frozen rents make it difficult to secure financing for major improvements. He said lenders evaluate a building’s income potential when considering loans and that limits imposed on rent increases weaken those applications.
“If I went to a bank and said I want to replace my boiler and I need a loan, they’re going to look at my income on my building, potential income increases, and they’re going to say, ‘forget it. We’re not loaning you any money,’” Athineos told News 12 Brooklyn. “They froze the rent this year, and it sounds like they’re going to freeze it the next three years, too.”
He added that larger structural repairs are also being delayed due to costs. Athineos said replacing aging brickwork on his building would exceed $1 million, forcing him to opt for temporary fixes instead.
“We want to, but it would be over a million dollars, so instead we do patches,” he told News 12 Brooklyn.
Athineos said the city is aware that maintenance costs are rising. He pointed to recent rent increases approved for Mitchell-Lama developments, which are city-supervised affordable housing complexes, including some in Coney Island that saw a roughly 30% increase.
He said similar adjustments are needed for rent-stabilized buildings to remain viable.
“To expect us to maintain 100-year-old buildings with no rent increases and already deflating rents is just silly,” Athineos told News 12 Brooklyn.
Athineos said the long-term condition of buildings like his depends on the ability to fund major repairs, which he argued are essential if they are to remain standing for another century.
"Someone is going to end up paying for this, even if it's the city if they seize it from us like they have been threatening, but we can't keep kicking the can down the road," he said.
