New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says his latest housing proposal is designed to make renting more affordable, but one of Manhattan’s top real estate brokers argues the plan would ultimately make it more difficult—and potentially more expensive—for many tenants to secure an apartment, the New York Post reports.
The proposal is part of Mamdani’s newly unveiled 23-point “Rental Ripoff Report,” released Thursday. Among its provisions is a measure that would prohibit landlords from requiring both a credit check and proof of income from prospective tenants, forcing them to rely on only one of those screening methods. The plan would also require landlords, rather than renters, to pay the cost of credit checks.
Cea Weaver, who serves as director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, compared the proposal to the 2024 FARE Act, which shifted responsibility for broker fees from tenants to landlords. Like that legislation, the new proposal would require approval from the City Council before taking effect. Weaver has argued that current rental standards—which often require applicants to earn at least 40 times the monthly rent while also paying for a credit check—place the greatest burden on renters who move frequently.
Keyan Sanai, the highest-ranked rental broker at Douglas Elliman, said the proposal focuses on an expense that has already been largely eliminated.
“The only permitted charge is the actual cost of a credit and background check, capped at $20, and that must be waived when an applicant supplies a qualifying report completed within the previous 30 days,” Sanai said. “Eliminating that remaining $20 charge may produce a headline, but it will not meaningfully improve housing affordability.”
Sanai argued that the real impact of the proposal lies not in eliminating the modest credit check fee, but in preventing landlords from reviewing both an applicant’s credit history and income simultaneously.
“That is not merely a change in who pays a nominal screening cost,” Sanai said. “It is a restriction on basic financial underwriting.”
He compared the proposal to a 2019 law that limited security deposits to one month’s rent and prohibited landlords from collecting the final month’s rent in advance. According to Sanai, that change made it more difficult for applicants with unconventional financial situations to strengthen their rental applications.
“That restriction made it more difficult for applicants with substantial assets but irregular income, limited credit or nontraditional financial circumstances to strengthen their applications voluntarily,” Sanai said. “In practice, many of those applicants are pushed toward third party guarantor companies.”
According to Sanai, those guarantor companies often charge fees amounting to a substantial portion of one month’s rent, and unlike a traditional security deposit, those payments are never refunded.
He contends that landlords will continue evaluating applicants’ financial strength regardless of the city’s restrictions, instead relying more heavily on guarantors when their screening options become more limited.
“Owners will not simply abandon financial underwriting and hope for the best,” Sanai said. “They will respond by requiring more applicants to provide personal or institutional guarantors.”
Sanai said renters with financially qualified family members may be able to satisfy guarantor requirements—often requiring income equal to roughly 80 times the monthly rent—but many others will have little choice but to pay commercial guarantor companies.
“Applicants fortunate enough to have wealthy relatives who can satisfy an 80 times rent guarantor requirement may be fine,” Sanai said. “Everyone else may be forced to purchase an institutional guaranty that can cost approximately one month’s rent and is never returned.”
He also criticized Mamdani personally, arguing that the mayor’s background leaves him disconnected from the financial realities facing many renters.
“For those of us who did not grow up with wealthy parents who owned multiple residences, including a two million dollar condo in Chelsea, an institutional guarantor would be required, which is a one month nonrefundable charge,” Sanai said. “Perhaps the rest of us can ask Mayor Mamdani whether his parents can guaranty our apartments as well.”
Sanai said he believes the proposal follows the same pattern as the FARE Act, which he argues promised financial relief for tenants but coincided with rising rents.
“We have already seen what happens when lawmakers pretend that mandated costs simply disappear,” Sanai said. “The FARE Act prohibited brokers representing landlords from collecting their commissions from tenants.”
By June 2026, the median monthly rent in Manhattan had climbed to a record $5,295, according to Corcoran, representing an increase of approximately 8% from the previous year. During the same period, active rental listings fell to 5,260, a 16% decline from June 2025 and the fewest available June listings in three years.
Sanai acknowledged that StreetEasy’s own analysis concluded the FARE Act directly accounted for only about a 1.1% increase in rents, with most of the price growth driven by the city’s ongoing housing shortage.
“That does not prove the FARE Act caused the entire increase,” Sanai said. “But it does demonstrate that owners do not simply absorb new costs indefinitely. At least some portion is ultimately reflected in rents, reduced services, stricter underwriting or lower housing supply.”
He predicted that Mamdani’s latest proposal would produce similar unintended consequences if enacted.
“This newest proposal would raise the barrier to entry even further, especially for applicants without wealthy family members available to guarantee their leases,” Sanai said. “As usual, the policy will be announced as tenant protection. When the predictable consequences arrive, renters will bear the cost and the politicians responsible will accept none of the accountability.”
Asked whether he believed the proposal would ultimately harm tenants, Sanai offered a blunt assessment.
“This will screw people just as bad as the FARE Act, to be honest,” Sanai said.
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