343 Saint Nicholas Avenue in Hamilton Heights, where property tax payments will rise 26% this year (inset: Mayor Bill de Blasio)
Landlords of rent-stabilized apartments will see their property tax payments rise significantly in the coming year, while rental income will stay put.
Preliminary tax assessments on apartment buildings rose by an average of 10.8 percent citywide, the largest increase in 20 years. While tax rates wonât change, tax payments will nonetheless rise, straining the finances of the owners of buildings with rent-stabilized units, the Wall Street Journal reported.
âIt definitely takes a toll on landlords,â Michael Weissman of Most Reliable Management, a firm that represents rent-stabilized landlords in Brooklyn, told the Journal.
The city’s Rent Guidelines Board is enforcing a freeze on rent-stabilized rents in the city this year.
The Rent Stabilization Associationâs Aaron Sirulnick, told the Journal the increases represented âa continual crisis.â
âWe support affordable housing, but it is virtually impossible to keep up with the expense side when the revenue is capped at zero percent,â he told the paper.
City officials defended the increase, citing market forces and playing down the severity of landlordsâ financial straits.
âThe roll simply reflects the growing real-estate market and construction activities,â Jacques Jiha, the cityâs Commissioner of Finance, said in a statement.
State law requires that the city phase assessment increases over five years, with only 20 percent of any one increase charged in the first year.
âThe data doesnât bear out [landlordsâ] claims of poverty,â Rent Guidelines Boardâs tenant rep Harvey Epstein told the Journal. âIf there was any real proof that landlords were suffering, we would come up with a solution to protect those landlords,â he said. âNobody wants to see wholesale foreclosuresâit is bad for tenants.â [WSJ] â Ariel Stulberg
Source: The Real Deal
