Rent costs in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn are at record highs, but progressive City Councilman Chi Ossé is looking to raise rents in the Big Apple even more.
Yes, Ossé claims he’s helping renters by reintroducing a bill to require whoever hires a broker, which is overwhelmingly landlords, to pay the broker’s fee.
What will come next is obvious.
Landlords who can’t absorb the cost of brokers’ fees will pay it upfront and then hike monthly rent to cover the cost, shifting it back to renters.
Even Ossé’s office admitted this outcome was likely when he introduced his Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses Act for the first time in June 2023, with a spokesman saying: “While it is possible that tenants will see some percentage of the broker fee realized in their rent, these pass-through costs would necessarily be distributed over the course of their 12 or 24 month lease.”
But landlords often have income requirements, meaning the bill would price more New Yorkers out of more apartments.
And being forced to cover the fee would slam the owners of rent-stabilized apartments, many of them already struggling to keep up with maintenance costs and other bills; some would simply have to keep those units off the market.
So Ossé’s bill would raise rents and reduce affordable housing.
The unintended but completely foreseeable consequences of progressive policy strike again.
Renters already have the option to avoid brokers’ fees entirely now: Not every landlord uses a broker, and popular sites like Zillow and StreetEasy allow apartment hunters to search for no-fee apartments.
The City Council will be holding a hearing on the FARE Act on June 12; any member who cares about affordable housing should reject it.
Ossé has called his bill “common sense.” It’s anything but.
It’s more big-government meddling that will make the already-tight rental market worse for New Yorkers.
