Owners of NYC’s rent-stabilized units have seen insurance costs soar 150% since 2019: study

Soaring insurance costs and other financial pressures are hitting affordable housing hard — and it comes amid Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to freeze rents for stabilized units.

A report from New York University’s Furman Center, first covered by Bloomberg, revealed the mounting operating costs faced by owners of the city’s most affordable rent-stabilized housing.

Insurance costs for rent-stabilized apartments grew a startling 150% between 2019 and 2025, according to the report. Operating costs, including maintenance and utilities, outpaced inflation.

The 16,600 buildings highlighted in the NYU report rely almost entirely on rent collected from stabilized units for operating income. Real estate experts have said Mamdani’s vow to freeze rents could result in deteriorated living conditions as cash-strapped landlords pull back on spending.

The rent-stabilized stock highlighted in the report makes up 47% of the nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in New York City. These are buildings that predate 1974, in which 90% or more of the units are affordable.

The roughly 456,000 units housed within these buildings provide some of the city’s most affordable rents, according to the report.

These deeply affordable units are heavily concentrated in northern Manhattan and The Bronx, according to the report. There are pronounced clusters in Brooklyn’s Flatbush and Midwood, as well.

A 2024 brief by the New York Housing Conference, an affordable housing organization, called sharply rising premiums an “alarming risk” to affordable housing. The brief cited factors like natural disasters, market shifts and inflation as contributing to the spike.

Fewer companies are offering multifamily coverage, according to the organization, and it found evidence of discrimination among those that do.

“Providers also shared examples of insurers declining to offer coverage because the portfolio includes affordable housing or because the buildings are in New York City and, in some cases, because buildings are located in The Bronx,” the brief said.

Other operating costs are on the rise, too. Landlords’ maintenance costs rose 39% since 2019 and utilities increased by 31%, according to Rent Guidelines Board data cited in the NYU report.

Property owners may defer crucial repairs as a result of price pressures. The report found patterns of reduced spending “more consistent with deferred or reallocated maintenance than with reduced cost pressures.”

“Owners may delay maintenance, repairs, or replacement cycles to absorb less flexible costs such as insurance or utilities,” the report said.

Potentially deferred repairs are consistent with another unhappy figure — a 47% spike in the rate of housing code violations amount the 456,000 deeply affordable units between early 2021 and 2025.

The uptick coincided with expanded enforcement activity and increased tenant complaints, the report noted, but violations within these aging stabilized buildings was pronounced. Infractions like leaks and mold, as well as more hazardous violations, rose more sharply in the heavily stabilized properties than other buildings.

An ongoing building push by the Adams administration has ushered in new affordable housing across the boroughs, but maintenance of the city’s aging stabilized stock remains vital.

“These buildings make up a substantial share of the city’s lower-cost private rental housing and play an important role in maintaining affordability,” the report said.