Despite all the hullabaloo about the city ‘losing’ rent stabilized apartments, it’s pretty clear that the number actually increased in 2010. The Rent Guidelines Board last week issued an analysis that found “a minimum net estimated loss of 4,560 rent stabilized units in 2010, 55% fewer than in 2009.” Buried in a footnote, however, is the fact that the Roberts v. Tishman case put 4,000 units at Stuyvesant Town alone back into stabilization and many more citywide…more than enough to put the number of stabilized units higher than the year before. The RGB acknowledges that “the reregulation of these units is not included in this year’s report.”
Most of the other additions to the rent stabilized stock in 2010 were due to two tax incentive programs: the 421-a and 420-c programs, which, of course the ‘pro-tenant’ legislature has so far failed to renew, apparently on the theory that new rental housing is bad for tenants.