It was a mixed legislative session for real estate.
On the one hand, real estate groups managed to fend off a number of state bills they viewed as potentially catastrophic — including a measure that would have made it easier for rent stabilization to spread throughout the state.
On the other hand, the legislative session ended without much policy aimed at increasing housing construction throughout the state.
The Real Estate Board of New York credited coalition-building for “key wins” during the legislative session. The trade group, for example, was part of coalitions that supported the state-based housing voucher program and the renewal of the tax credit program.
“We are grateful to the many state elected officials that recognized that the real estate industry should be a partner—not opponent—for advancing affordability, equity and prosperity across New York,” REBNY President Jim Whelan said in a statement.
Heading into next year, this session’s rejected bills could resurface, as well as other housing-related issues (perhaps amendments to the property tax break 485x or bills aimed at helping rent-stabilized owners).
Here is an overview of where major real estate-related bills landed this session:
Winners
Owners of co-op ground leases
Once again, a bill that would dramatically change the dynamic between co-op ground lease owners and lessors gained some momentum only to fizzle out at the end of the session.
The original bill would have limited annual ground lease rent increases to 3 percent or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater.
In May, lawmakers amended the bill to take out the rent cap. The latest version wouldn’t limit rent hikes, but instead gave residents the first opportunity to buy the ground lease if the owner decides to sell. It also included rules for setting rents for co-op units in the event that a ground lease is not renewed and the co-op reverts to rent-stabilized housing. The Senate approved the measure in a 34 to 28 vote, but it stalled in the Assembly.
The Real Estate Board of New York opposed both versions of the bill, arguing that the amended measure was still unconstitutional and interfered with private contracts.
Meanwhile, the Ground Lease Co-op Coalition called the measure “a critical lifeline in the midst of our city’s ongoing housing crisis.” The coalition included board members of Carnegie House, a co-op that is fighting a significant ground-lease rent increase. The board, as well as an entity that owns the retail co-op in the building, have spent tens of thousands of dollars lobbying in support of the measure.
REBNY has argued that the bill sought to protect wealthy, in some cases, Billionaires’ Row owners who bought into their buildings at steep discounts, knowing that the trade-off was potential future rent increases. Proponents of the bill say lawmakers need to protect these co-ops as one of the few remaining affordable homeownership options in the city.
“Without this legislation, residents are left with few options as they fight to save their homes from predatory landlords,” Richard Hirsch, president of the Carnegie House board of directors and member of the Ground Lease Co-op Coalition, said in a statement. “While this setback is disappointing, we remain committed to fighting for ground lease co-ops and preserving this essential housing stock.
Carnegie House is running out of ways to fight its rent increases. In March, a state court judge threw out its lawsuit seeking to halt rent negotiations.
Multifamily owners outside NYC
A locality can adopt rent stabilization if it concludes that a housing emergency exists. Such an emergency is defined as having a housing vacancy rate of 5 percent or less.
Sen. Brian Kavanagh and Assembly member Sarahana Shrestha introduced legislation, known as the Rent Emergency Stabilization for Tenants, or REST, Act, this year that would make it easier for localities outside New York City to opt into rent stabilization.
Under the bill, localities can also declare a housing emergency after considering publicly available data, including overall housing supply, local and regional homelessness rates, rent burdens and vacancies, and holding public meetings.
The bill would allow these localities to apply rent stabilization to buildings with fewer than six units, which is the current cutoff. It would also apply to buildings that weren’t built or substantially renovated in the last 15 years, meaning newer construction would eventually become regulated.
The measure, however, did not come to a vote in either chamber.
After it was introduced, Hudson Valley Property Owners Association’s Executive Director Richard Lanzarone called the bill “an assault on mom and pop landlords from Buffalo to Montauk.”
“It doubles down on the 50-year failed record of rent stabilization in solving New York’s housing problems,” he said at the time.
Tenant groups, including Housing Justice for All and For the Many, supported the bill and have worked with localities to help them adopt rent stabilization, including Kingston, which became the first upstate city to do so. The Hudson Valley Property Owners Association has been fighting to have Kingston’s emergency declaration annulled, arguing it was based on faulty data. The state’s highest court heard arguments in the group’s case last month.
Homeowners for an Affordable New York, a coalition of real estate groups that fought against the bill and previously lobbied against the passage of good cause eviction, said the measure would “jeopardize the long-term stability of New York’s housing market.”
“We’ve seen the consequences of rent control in New York City — constrained supply, deteriorating conditions, and a lack of investment — and we are committed to preventing the same harmful outcomes in Upstate and on Long Island,” the group said in a statement.
Office landlords
As part of her executive budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul sought to extend the Relocation and Employment Assistance Program, or REAP, for five years and create a new incentive program, dubbed Relocation Assistance Credit Per Employee, or RACE.
Both were excluded from the budget, but after a few tweaks, were passed by the Senate and Assembly this month. The legislation extends REAP, as well as a version of the program that applies to Lower Manhattan, for three years.
REAP provides tax credits to businesses that relocate from outside NYC or from below 96th Street in Manhattan to above 96th Street or other boroughs (up to $3,000 per job relocated). RACE provides $5,000-per-job credits to out-of-state businesses that move to New York.
The Five Borough Jobs Campaign, of which REBNY is a member, was the tax incentives’ most vocal supporter and said the renewal of REAP, as well as its Lower Manhattan counterpart, and the creation of RACE would “spur economic activity in communities across New York City.”
REAP has its critics. Some lawmakers pushed back on the governor’s proposal, arguing that the state shouldn’t incentivize businesses to move out of Manhattan without maintaining a tax credit for Lower Manhattan, Crain’s reported.
According to the Independent Budget Office, the program averaged $28 million in foregone tax revenue between 2016 and 2021. The IBO has recommended creating a minimum threshold for jobs created to avoid situations where a single job is moved, thus “creating administrative burden for little economic impact.” RACE, which will run a three-year pilot, includes caps on the value of credits that can be disbursed and doesn’t provide credits for hotel or retail jobs that are relocated.
The Citizens Budget Commission urged against renewing REAP without first assessing its effectiveness.
Sean Campion, director of housing and economic development studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, said the three-year extension will give the city “the opportunity to evaluate the program, which is necessary to inform future extensions.”
Losers
RealPage and similar companies
Following a number of cities, the state legislature approved a bill that would bar owners from basing rents and leasing terms on recommendations from a “software, data analytics service or algorithmic device” that coordinates pricing for or between residential property owners.
Several lawsuits, including one brought by the Department of Justice, have accused companies like RealPage and Yardi of using their software to drive up rents and encourage multifamily owners to collude on rental pricing.
REBNY wants the governor to amend this measure to ensure that the ban applies to automating pricing using proprietary data, not publicly available or historical information. The bill awaits the signature of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has previously been supportive of such bans. Hochul included a similar measure in her executive budget this year, but it was ultimately left out of the spending plan.
It is unclear how these bans will stand up after the various lawsuits play out. The federal government may also intervene: Congress recently pitched a 10-year ban on localities passing restrictions on algorithmic rent-setting platforms.
Construction unions
One of the top legislative priorities for construction unions this session was a bill that would have expanded prevailing wage requirements.
In 2020, the state approved a measure that required union-level wages on private projects where public funds cover at least 30 percent of construction costs and such costs exceed $5 million. Those requirements went into effect in 2022 and were overseen by a 13-member public subsidy board imbued with the authority to raise these thresholds and to determine what projects qualify.
A bill proposed by Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assembly member Harry Bronson would have reduced that threshold to 20 percent, and stipulated that prevailing wages kicked in for such projects where at least $3 million in public funds do not need to be repaid, or if the project receives, in the aggregate, $5 million or more in public money. The measure would have also disbanded the subsidy board, shifting its responsibilities to the Department of Labor.
Developers typically oppose prevailing wages, arguing that it further drives up already astronomical construction costs and ultimately leads to less being built.
The measure did not come to a vote this year.
A source familiar with discussions of the bill said an abridged proposal, focused on the 20 percent threshold and eliminating the board, surfaced in the eleventh hour but did not succeed. A similar proposal appeared in the Senate’s one-house budget resolution.
Gary LaBarbera, president of the city and state chapters of the Building and Construction Trades Council, said the public subsidy board was hamstrung by its inability to reach consensus, and only found that prevailing wages were required on six of the 36 projects that came before the board.
He said he was hopeful the measure would be included in next year’s state budget.
“Strong prevailing wage laws within the construction industry are a cornerstone of a formidable economy and all construction workers deserve to receive livable wages that enable them to support their families,” he said in a statement.
Yimbys
This was not a banner year for pro-housing policy. The Faith‑Based Affordable Housing Act, which would make it easier for religious organizations to build affordable housing on their property, once again did not come to a vote.
“Albany ended its 2025 session without confronting the root cause of New York’s housing shortage: It is illegal to build more homes in the places that New Yorkers most want to live,”
Annemarie Gray, executive director of Open New York, said in a statement. “In the face of skyrocketing prices, lawmakers sidelined strong, ready-to-go solutions, such as the bipartisan Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act.”
Also of note: The Senate passed a bill that would have required limited liability companies that register rent-stabilized units with the state to also disclose the names of the entity’s members and their ownership interest. The measure didn’t come to a vote in the Assembly.
The legislature approved another measure that would set ground rules for property owners who need to make repairs or do other construction work that requires access to an adjoining lot — a frequent source of litigation between property owners.
Read more
Real estate’s winners and losers of the state budget
The Daily Dirt: Construction workers push to expand prevailing wage mandates
New York bans rent-setting software
