Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner is warning that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s threatened property tax hike will have immediate consequences for renters and working families. Speaking Thursday on “The Alex Marlow Show,” Turner said the math is straightforward.Rents are going to go up. You’re going to see people who are going to be out of housing, not be able to afford rents. Housing costs will go up,” Turner said.Turner’s comments come as Mamdani pushes a $127 billion city budget and pressures Albany to raise taxes on millionaires. The mayor has said that if Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature refuse to approve a “rich tax,” he will be “forced” to increase property taxes by 9.5% across the board.
“There are two paths to bridge the city’s inherited budget gap,” Mamdani said in his budget presentation. “The first path is the most sustainable and fairest: raising taxes on the wealthiest and corporations.”
“If we do not go down the first path,” he continued, “the city will be forced to go down a second, more harmful path of property taxes and raiding our reserves.”
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While homeowners may appear to be the first in line to absorb the increase, housing analysts say renters are likely to feel the impact quickly — particularly in a market already defined by low vacancy and rising costs.
According to New York City Department of Finance data for fiscal year 2027, rental properties across the five boroughs are currently taxed at an average effective rate of roughly 12.4%. If that rate were increased by 9.5%, the effective rate would rise to about 13.6%.
On a per-unit basis, the average property tax for a rental unit is estimated at $5,886. A 9.5% increase would push that figure to approximately $6,445 per unit — an increase of roughly $560 per apartment.
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For landlords operating dozens of units, that additional carrying cost can quickly multiply. In a market-rate building, owners may attempt to pass at least part of that burden onto tenants through higher renewal rates or increased listing prices.
