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My understanding is that he is proposing a 4 year freeze on about 1 million units. https://www.curbed.com/article/zohran-mamdani-housing-rent-freeze-mayoral-el

My understanding is that he is proposing a 4 year freeze on about 1 million units. https://www.curbed.com/article/zohran-mamdani-housing-rent-freeze-mayoral-election-win.html https://www.curbed.com/article/zohran-mamdani-housing-rent-f... archive: https://archive.ph/hnK4Q https://archive.ph/hnK4Q "The 34-year-old democratic socialist’s pledge for a four-year pause on any increases on the city’s 1 million or so stabilized units, effectively giving a reprieve to about 2 million stabilized tenants, was at the center of his campaign" I'm not directly familiar with Berlin. But this story about shortages is the expected outcome: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/germany-must-build-320000-apartments-yearly-meet-housing-demand-study-shows-2025-03-20/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/germany-must-build-32... BERLIN, March 20 (Reuters) - Germany, lagging in its building goals to alleviate a housing shortage, needs to construct 320,000 new apartments each year by 2030, a study on Thursday showed.

JumpCrisscross 11mo ago
> 34-year-old democratic socialist’s pledge for a four-year pause on any increases on the city’s 1 million or so stabilized units Out of 3.7mm [1]. > not directly familiar with Berlin Not comparable. Berlin froze rents “on more than 1.5 million” apartments in 2020 [2] out of about 2mm. 25% versus 75%. Also, Berlin’s politicians didn’t propose a construction agenda. Mamdani has. (“New York City voters on Tuesday delivered a strong message in support of building more housing, passing three proposals that pitted City Hall against the City Council in an effort to rewrite decades-old development rules” [4].) [1] https://www.nyc.gov/content/tenantprotection/pages/fast-facts-about-housing-in-nyc https://www.nyc.gov/content/tenantprotection/pages/fast-fact... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/europe/berlin-gentrification-rent.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/europe/berlin-gentr... [3] https://www.berlin.de/en/news/8283996-5559700-housing-stock-berlin-growing-slowly.en.html https://www.berlin.de/en/news/8283996-5559700-housing-stock-... [4] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/nyregion/nyc-ballot-measures-housing.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/nyregion/nyc-ballot-measu...
- testfoobar 11mo ago
  Increasing supply brings down prices. But a builder will not build at a loss or an imminent threat to their rental income from expansion of rent freezes. A city with an expanding rent-freeze is not inviting new supply.
  - ThrowMeAway1618 11mo ago
    [flagged]
    - testfoobar 11mo ago
      First - a rent freeze directly transfers inflation costs to the property owners. It is a tax by another name. Second - there is no similar freeze on property taxes - or the expected inflation in maintenance costs, insurance, and so on. Again - a tax on property owners by another name. Third - starting with a rent freeze is an indicator of a property owner unfriendly administration. Any builder would have to calculate this into their expected returns on capital investment.
      - ThrowMeAway1618 11mo ago
        [flagged]
      - kelnos 11mo ago
        It's not property-owner-unfriendly, it's landlord-unfriendly. Which is just fine in my book. Builders do not have to "calculate" any of this into their "expected returns", because new construction will not be subject to rent freezes or even stabilization. You're selectively ignoring a key part of what the GP said in order to further your incorrect argument, and that's not cool. As for your first and second points... tough shit for the landlords. That's a cost of doing business. Taxes, even implicit ones like this, change all the time. And a landlord owning a rent-stabilized unit should already know that there are limits on what kind of rent increases they can push through, and that those limits could change at any time, even to zero.

JumpCrisscross 11mo ago

> 34-year-old democratic socialist’s pledge for a four-year pause on any increases on the city’s 1 million or so stabilized units Out of 3.7mm [1]. > not directly familiar with Berlin Not comparable. Berlin froze rents “on more than 1.5 million” apartments in 2020 [2] out of about 2mm. 25% versus 75%. Also, Berlin’s politicians didn’t propose a construction agenda. Mamdani has. (“New York City voters on Tuesday delivered a strong message in support of building more housing, passing three proposals that pitted City Hall against the City Council in an effort to rewrite decades-old development rules” [4].) [1] https://www.nyc.gov/content/tenantprotection/pages/fast-facts-about-housing-in-nyc https://www.nyc.gov/content/tenantprotection/pages/fast-fact... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/europe/berlin-gentrification-rent.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/europe/berlin-gentr... [3] https://www.berlin.de/en/news/8283996-5559700-housing-stock-berlin-growing-slowly.en.html https://www.berlin.de/en/news/8283996-5559700-housing-stock-... [4] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/nyregion/nyc-ballot-measures-housing.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/nyregion/nyc-ballot-measu...

testfoobar 11mo ago
Increasing supply brings down prices. But a builder will not build at a loss or an imminent threat to their rental income from expansion of rent freezes. A city with an expanding rent-freeze is not inviting new supply.
- ThrowMeAway1618 11mo ago
  [flagged]
  - testfoobar 11mo ago
    First - a rent freeze directly transfers inflation costs to the property owners. It is a tax by another name. Second - there is no similar freeze on property taxes - or the expected inflation in maintenance costs, insurance, and so on. Again - a tax on property owners by another name. Third - starting with a rent freeze is an indicator of a property owner unfriendly administration. Any builder would have to calculate this into their expected returns on capital investment.
    - ThrowMeAway1618 11mo ago
      [flagged]
    - kelnos 11mo ago
      It's not property-owner-unfriendly, it's landlord-unfriendly. Which is just fine in my book. Builders do not have to "calculate" any of this into their "expected returns", because new construction will not be subject to rent freezes or even stabilization. You're selectively ignoring a key part of what the GP said in order to further your incorrect argument, and that's not cool. As for your first and second points... tough shit for the landlords. That's a cost of doing business. Taxes, even implicit ones like this, change all the time. And a landlord owning a rent-stabilized unit should already know that there are limits on what kind of rent increases they can push through, and that those limits could change at any time, even to zero.