New York City landlords and real estate developers are panicking about the prospect of Zohran Mamdani becoming mayor, frantically throwing money at his opponents and threatening to leave the city altogether.
Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor of the Big Apple last month in a bombshell upset that threw the election into chaos.
The self-described democratic socialist is campaigning on freezing rents for two million New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments.
He has also said he has “many critiques of capitalism” and quoted Martin Luther King Jr., saying, “there must be a better distribution of wealth” in the country.
This is not music to the ears of the city’s real estate moguls, who are scrambling to make sure Mamdani does not get the chance to take the reins of the city.
One New York real estate mogul, Marc Holliday, chief executive of the real estate investment trust SL Green, hosted a cocktail fundraising event on the rooftop of one of his Manhattan office towers on Wednesday to raise money for incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent.
Tickets to the fundraiser were $2,000 a pop.
“There’s going to be a lot of these fundraisers,” Noble Black, a New York City luxury real-estate broker, told the Wall Street Journal.
“Everyone is talking about how much wealth is aligning against Mamdani,” Black said.
Another fundraiser for Adams was held by a real estate couple in the Hamptons over the weekend that included several New York City billionaires and real estate investors.
Several real estate power brokers are also planning additional events, according to the Journal, including one that will feature social media influencers to attract younger voters.
Meanwhile, landlords say Mamdani’s policies would be a catastrophe for them.
The rent freezing plan is “a recipe for disaster,” Kenny Burgos, head of the New York Apartment Association, one of the city’s largest trade groups, told Newsweek.
Burgos noted that rents are not being hiked in rent-stabilized apartments, thereby burdening tenants in a manner similar to the “free market.”
He told the outlet that while larger landlords might be making a profit, smaller owners, such as rent-stabilized landlords, are struggling.
“This is almost a tale of two cities. And this is why the policy that Mamdani is pushing forth is so dangerous,” Burgos said. “We’re in the middle of a crisis that he will inherit, that he will accelerate, and that will destroy the housing market in New York City.”
Many wealthy landlords would likely get out of New York City if Mamdani wins, according to real estate experts.
“Landlords are facing mounting pressure — with high taxes and operating costs, it’s becoming unsustainable to hold properties without the ability to adjust rents. Many are now evaluating out-of-state investments as a safer, more profitable alternative,” Jay Batra, a real estate entrepreneur and the principal of Batra Real Estate, a full-service real estate brokerage in New York City and Miami, told Newsweek.
Besides rent freezes, Mamdani has proposed other expensive policies, including government-run grocery stores, free buses, free city universities, free childcare, increasing New York City’s minimum wage to $30 an hour, and investing $65 million in transgender drugs and surgeries.
