The lone member of New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) who opposed the city’s newly approved rent freeze says the policy could gradually leave aging rent-stabilized buildings in worse condition by reducing the revenue landlords rely on for repairs and capital investments.

Arpit Gupta, who also serves as an associate finance professor at New York University’s business school, said he is concerned the freeze one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s signature campaign promises could make it increasingly difficult for property owners to cover essential operating expenses.

“It’s a little bit of a slow burn,” said Gupta, an associate finance professor at New York University’s business school. “The risk is that the buildings do go under more distress. There are a variety of responses. One is … deferred maintenance, which will worsen the physical conditions of buildings.

“There are other avenues of distress, like going behind on mortgage payments, insurance payments, eventually property taxes, which leaves the property to be transferred in ownership to a bank or to the city, possibly for a tax lien sale.”

Following the board’s June 25 vote, RGB Chair Chantella Mitchell appointed by Mamdani earlier this year acknowledged that landlords have experienced sharp increases in property taxes and insurance costs but maintained that most owners “remain able to meet rising costs.”

Gupta, who joined the board after being appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams in 2022, said he does not dispute that many landlords remain financially stable.

Instead, he argues that the impact varies significantly across the city’s housing stock. Older rent-stabilized buildings that depend almost entirely on regulated rental income, he said, face far greater financial pressure than newer developments with mixed-income revenue streams.

The latest policy goes beyond previous rent freezes approved during former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, when rent increases were suspended three times for one-year leases only in 2015, 2016 and 2020. The current measure freezes rents on both one- and two-year leases beginning Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027, affecting roughly one million rent-stabilized apartments.

Because of the timing of those lease terms, some landlords may be unable to increase rents until as late as September 2029.

Gupta believes a citywide rent freeze is an overly broad solution to the affordability crisis. He said a better approach would provide direct assistance to low-income tenants while allowing financially stressed buildings to continue receiving modest rent increases.

“About 30% of the tenants in rent-stabilized housing make six figures or more. At the same time, many individuals in market-rate housing are below the poverty line,” Gupta said. “So, to have a system that provides so many benefits for one sector of the housing stock while completely leaving out the market-rate tenants whose rents might actually go up because of the dynamics of freezing one part of the housing stock means that we have an incompletely targeted program.”

Gupta also pointed to existing city programs that freeze rents for qualifying senior citizens and people with disabilities, arguing that similar protections should instead be expanded to include low-income residents regardless of whether they live in rent-stabilized housing.

Another concern, Gupta said, is that the policy may encourage some landlords to keep apartments vacant rather than rent them out.

Data reported by Gothamist in early June showed that more than 57,000 rent-stabilized apartments sat vacant in April 2025. State housing officials noted that the figure does not necessarily represent long-term vacancies because some units were in the process of being prepared for new tenants.

Gupta contends, however, that many apartments remain empty because owners cannot recover renovation costs under current rent regulations, a problem he believes could become even more pronounced under the latest rent freeze.

Many property owners trace their financial challenges back to the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, which eliminated the “vacancy bonus” that previously allowed landlords to raise rents by up to 20% after a tenant moved out. Owners argue the change reduced their ability to finance renovations before re-renting apartments.

Despite his opposition to the rent freeze, Gupta said he understands the reasoning behind his fellow board members’ votes and acknowledged that many tenants continue to struggle with housing costs despite previous efforts to limit rent increases.

“In the five years I’ve been on this board … we have set rents below our estimate of building cost increases, we have set rents below CPI and we’ve even set rents below wage growth in the city,” Gupta said.

Even with those lower increases, the board’s own income and affordability study found that New York City’s spending on one-time programs to cover tenants’ unpaid rent climbed from $102 million in 2022 to $555.8 million by 2025.

That same report also found that 62% of eviction cases last year involved buildings containing rent-stabilized apartments, a statistic supporters cited in favor of implementing the rent freeze.

Although Gupta opposed the final decision, he said he does not believe Mayor Mamdani’s appointments predetermined the outcome. The mayor selected six of the board’s nine members earlier this year, and each voted in favor of freezing rents.

“From my understanding, the administration did not direct or try to influence the vote directly,” Gupta said. “My fellow board members tell me that they were independently appointed.

“What I also hear from board members who joined is that in the vetting process, as they were entering the board, they weren’t asked or pressured on their position on the rent freeze,” Gupta said.

Former board member Christina Smyth, another appointee of former Mayor Adams who resigned before the vote, offered a different assessment. In a public letter posted on social media, she argued that the board had been “rebuilt,” was no longer a “fact-finding body” and that it was “required to deliver a rent freeze.”

Looking ahead, Gupta said his greatest concern is that the current policy may become permanent, noting that Mamdani campaigned on a pledge to “freeze the rent every year I’m in office.”

“I’ve had many discussions with other members of the board, and I’ve asked, ‘If you vote for the rent freeze now, what are the conditions under which you would vote for rental increases?’” he said.

Gupta said he has yet to receive a definitive answer. While some board members told him they intend to review future economic data before making additional decisions, he remains uncertain whether future rent increases will ever be approved.

“I’m not sure whether all the board members believe that’s the future or if maybe the future is just more freezes. Freeze after freeze for four years, as Mamdani campaigned on. That’s a very different picture.”

Fox News Digital said it asked Rent Guidelines Board Chair Chantella Mitchell whether she viewed the rent freeze as a temporary policy and about concerns that it could place additional financial strain on some rent-stabilized buildings. According to the report, Mitchell declined to comment beyond the statement she released following the board’s vote.