Nwe York law limits how much of cost renovations a landlord can pass on in rent increases and 20,000 rent-regulated units have become vacant since 2019

See New York Is Passing a Big Housing Deal. Everyone Is Grumbling: The deal includes ‘good cause’ eviction protections in exchange for more new developer tax breaks by Jimmy Vielkind of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Ann Korchak’s family owns two 10-unit apartment buildings on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. About 40% of those units are already rent-regulated, and she sees the new good-cause provisions as an unfair form of universal rent control.

“The free-market apartments really cover the lion’s share of the expenses for the building,” she said. “They’re really tying our hands.”

One of the rent-regulated units in her family’s portfolio has been vacant since 2021 after a single tenancy that lasted more than 50 years. Korchak said it would cost $200,000 to renovate the apartment so it could be rented again, but a law enacted in 2019 only allows a landlord to pass on $15,000 of that cost in rent increases.

The current proposal would raise that amount to $30,000 for rent-regulated units that become vacant, and $50,000 for units that were occupied for 25 years or longer. There are around 20,000 rent-regulated units that have become vacant since 2019 but aren’t on the market because the needed renovations are cost-prohibitive, said Jay Martin, executive director of Community Housing Improvement Program, a landlord trade group.

“It’s woefully inadequate to address the long-term insolvency issues we have,” he said of the current package. “This does not allow landlords to catch up.”"