The rent’s going up: NYC board approves hike for rent-stabilized apartments

Rent’s going up for NYC stabilized apartments

NEW YORK — The rent is going up for New Yorkers living in about a million rent-stabilized apartments.

The city’s Rent Guidelines Board voted Thursday night to raise rents by 2.25 percent on one-year leases and 4.5 percent on two-year leases. The increases apply to leases renewed between Oct. 1, 2010, and Sept. 30, 2011.

Last year the board’s chairman said half the stabilized apartments rent for $925 a month or less.

Tenants argued for a rent freeze. They say the hikes aren’t justified.

But building owners complain of getting socked with property taxes and water and sewer rate hikes.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer warns the city is turning its affordable housing stock into a “once-affordable memory.”