Zohran Mamdani Is Set To Take Office With a Housing Mandate

As the ball drops in Times Square, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will ring in the new year in a private swearing-in at the long-shuttered Old City Hall subway station beneath City Hall, just as the clock turns to Jan. 1, 2026.

In a press release, Mamdani cast the abandoned station as a kind of blueprint for his administration: a “physical monument” to a city that “dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives.” 

Housing is the mandate Mamdani is claiming, and it’s likely to prove to be his greatest test. His platform centers on a simple promise: “New York is too expensive. Zohran will lower costs and make life easier,” his website reads.

But the solution is far from simple. Mamdani has created an ambitious 10-year, $100 billion plan to triple the city’s production of publicly subsidized homes alongside a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments and increased investment in preserving public housing.

The urgency is not in dispute. New York City’s official net rental vacancy rate is 1.4%, the lowest recorded since 1968. In the third quarter of 2025, the median asking rent hit $3,599, up 5.4% from a year earlier, according to data from Realtor.com®. And in June 2025, almost 103,000 people slept each night in city shelters—70% of them homeless families, including more than 35,000 children, according to data from the Coalition for the Homeless.

New York Attorney General Letitia James will administer Mamdani’s midnight oath. Hours later, the message moves into daylight during a public event on the steps of City Hall, where U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is expected to administer a second oath before Mamdani addresses the city.

The ceremonies sell a story about restoring civic ambition for working New Yorkers. The harder question is whether the administration can translate symbolism into units.

The rent freeze tension: Popular promise, complicated mechanics

Mamdani has vowed a multiyear rent freeze for stabilized tenants, arguing that households earning a median income of about $60,000 can’t absorb additional increases. But while the pledge is straightforward, the pathway forward is not.

In New York City, the annual rent adjustments on rent-stabilized renewal leases are set through a yearly process run by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board, which votes on allowable increases for one- and two-year renewals. The board has nine members appointed by the mayor, meaning a mayor can shape its direction over time, but not necessarily overnight.

That timeline is now in question. Multiple outlets have reported that outgoing Mayor Eric Adams moved to appoint or reappoint Rent Guidelines Board members in December, a step that could complicate Mamdani’s ability to secure a freeze in the first rent-setting cycle of his term.

But the procedural hurdles are only half the battle. On the policy front, small landlords have been warning that 2019’s stricter rent laws, which placed limits on increases for stabilized units, have already contributed to an unintended consequence: tens of thousands of units sitting vacant.

Landlord groups argue that for many of these roughly 50,000 ghost apartments, operating costs exceed the legal rent or the apartments require extensive renovations that owners can’t afford under current rent caps. They contend that a blanket freeze could worsen the problem, especially in aging buildings that already struggle with deferred maintenance.

Whether Mamdani’s freeze helps or hurts will depend on what comes with it. Housing experts say that pairing a freeze with enforcement, preservation funding, and clear hardship carve-outs is critical—not just to protect renters, but also to prevent further erosion of the city’s rent-stabilized housing stock. The New York Apartment Association estimates that 700,000 apartments already need $4.65 billion in investments.

200,000 new units vs. longstanding bottlenecks

The rest of Mamdani’s housing platform is built around a simple, audacious wager: New York can’t deregulate or incentivize its way out of an affordability crisis, so the city should build its way out with the government in the lead. 

His campaign platform calls for $100 billion investment over 10 years, targeting 200,000 new units, while fast-tracking 100% affordable projects and putting more capital into New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) preservation.

It’s a bold vision, especially considering that, between 2010 and 2020, New York City added just over 185,000 multifamily units in buildings with four or more homes, according to the NYU Furman Center. Only about 30% of those were affordable to low-income households (those earning under 80% of the area median income).

The lackluster performance underlines what is sure to become one of Mamdani’s chief obstacles: long-established bottlenecks to building.

Money is the first stress test. Mamdani’s platform points to municipal bonds—including $70 billion in new capital dollars in the city’s Ten-Year Capital Plan—to help fund the big build. But City Hall can’t do this alone. Mamdani will need Albany to raise the city’s public debt ceiling and Washington to loosen bond-related caps. Two bold bets amid a climate that’s been hesitant to align with him.

Land is the next constraint, because “city-owned” is not the same as “buildable.” The platform leans heavily on “activation of City-owned land and buildings,” including building on NYCHA’s city-owned land. It’s a logical place to look first, but not every available parcel will pencil out to be the right spot for a housing development.

Labor and cost inflation are also poised to be a challenge. Prevailing wages increased total construction costs by about 23% on average, according to a New York City Independent Budget Office analysis. That figure underlines the reality that if the city wants 200,000 units, it needs either unusually efficient delivery or more money to fund them.

And then there’s time. Mamdani’s platform says 100% affordable developments would be expedited through land use review. This could meaningfully accelerate delivery of these units, as the current approval process can take as long as two to three years. And while many have pushed for a more streamlined review process, if timelines are compressed too aggressively, the city can end up paying for it on the back end through litigation or backlash that slows projects even more.

Lastly, there’s an important nuance in Mamdani’s housing plan, and it’s where the debate often gets lazy. A public-sector building surge can absolutely deliver real, life-changing affordability for the households who win access to those units. But whether it lowers rents citywide is a different question. Broad price relief depends on scale, and whether total housing supply grows fast enough, across income levels, to change the underlying supply-and-demand math.

All eyes on the first 100 days

The first 100 days will be a potent proving period for the mayor-elect and his housing agenda. And because housing politics have become national politics, New York City’s experiment is unlikely to stay local for long.

The early question for Mamdani isn’t just “Can you build 200,000 homes?” It’s both more basic and more complicated, and a question that nearly every city across the country is contending with: Can you build a system that builds units residents can actually afford at scale, and on time?

The answer may depend on who shows up to help.