How Much Can a Landlord Raise Rent in NY State?

How much a landlord can raise rent in NY depends on what kind of apartment you have. Rent-stabilized tenants in New York City face renewal increases capped at 3% for a one-year lease and 4.5% for a two-year lease for leases starting between October 1, 2025, and September 30, 2026.¹ Market-rate tenants in areas covered by the Good Cause Eviction Law get a presumptive cap of roughly 10% or less. Everyone else, in most cases, has no legal cap at all, though the landlord still has to give written notice before raising the rent.

Rent-Stabilized Apartments

If you live in a rent-stabilized apartment in New York City, the Rent Guidelines Board sets the maximum renewal increase each year. For leases beginning October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, that maximum is 3% on a one-year renewal and 4.5% on a two-year renewal.¹ The percentage applies to your legal regulated rent.

Preferential rent matters here. If you’ve been paying a discounted rent below the legal maximum, and that discount was in place on June 14, 2019, the guideline increase is calculated on your discounted rent, not the higher legal figure, for as long as you keep the apartment.²

The increase only becomes effective through a formal renewal lease. Your landlord has to offer that lease between 90 and 150 days before your current lease expires, and you have 60 days to accept. No renewal offer on the required form, no increase to collect.³

Vacancy bonuses are gone. The 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act eliminated the extra bump landlords used to add when a new tenant moved in, so a new tenant simply picks up where the prior legal rent left off, plus any applicable guideline increase.⁴

Landlords can add a rent increase on top of the guideline amount after making Individual Apartment Improvements, such as new appliances or a kitchen renovation. If you’re still living in the unit while the work is done, the landlord must get your written consent on an HCR form first. In a building with 35 or fewer units, the monthly increase is 1/168th of the improvement cost, capping at about $178.57 per month; in larger buildings it’s 1/180th, capping at about $166.67. Under current rules these increases are permanent.⁵⁶

Good Cause Eviction and Market-Rate Rent Caps

The Good Cause Eviction Law took effect on April 20, 2024, and it changed the picture for many market-rate tenants who used to have no protection at all. In a covered apartment, a rent increase above the “local rent standard” is presumed unreasonable, and the landlord has to justify it in court if the tenant refuses to pay.⁷

The local rent standard equals the local inflation rate plus 5%, capped at 10% total. HCR publishes the inflation figure before August 1 each year. As of early 2025, the New York City area inflation rate was 3.79%, putting the local rent standard at 8.79%.⁸ A landlord can still ask for more. But if you refuse and the landlord files an eviction case, a judge decides whether the increase was reasonable in light of property taxes, fuel and maintenance costs, and any significant repairs.⁷

Where Good Cause Applies

Coverage is automatic for market-rate apartments in New York City. Outside the city, individual municipalities have to opt in. As of April 2025, the list includes Albany, Ithaca, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Beacon, Newburgh, Nyack, Hudson, New Paltz, Fishkill, Catskill, Croton-on-Hudson, and Binghamton, and other localities can opt in at any time.⁷

Who Is Exempt

Several categories of market-rate tenants in covered areas don’t get Good Cause protection:

Small landlords. In New York City, an owner with 10 or fewer housing units statewide is exempt. If the owner is an LLC, the exemption only applies when every individual member holds 10 or fewer units. Other municipalities may set their own threshold.
New construction. Buildings that got a certificate of occupancy on or after January 1, 2009 are exempt, and the protection kicks in 30 years after completion.
High-rent units. Apartments above a monthly rent threshold that HCR updates annually are excluded.
Other categories. Rent-regulated apartments (already protected under stabilization or control), income-restricted housing, condos and co-ops, subletters, and institutional housing like dorms and assisted living are all outside the law.⁸

Market-Rate Apartments Without Good Cause

If your apartment falls into one of the exemptions, or you live somewhere that hasn’t opted in, there is no cap on how much your landlord can raise the rent. The landlord can charge whatever the market will bear. Your only protection is the advance-notice rule below, which gives you time to decide whether to sign or move.⁹

Rent-Controlled Apartments

Rent control is now a narrow category, roughly 24,000 apartments in New York City, mostly occupied by tenants who have lived continuously in the same pre-1947 building since before July 1, 1971.¹⁰ These apartments use a Maximum Base Rent formula. The state calculates a target rent based on building operating costs, and the landlord can move the actual rent toward that target each year. The annual increase can’t exceed the lesser of 7.5% or the average of the five most recent one-year RGB-approved increases. Once the actual rent hits the MBR, increases stop until the MBR is recalculated.

Notice Your Landlord Has to Give You

Whether or not Good Cause applies, New York law requires written notice before your landlord raises the rent by 5% or more, or declines to renew your lease. The amount of notice depends on how long you’ve been in the apartment or the length of your lease, whichever is longer:¹¹

Less than one year: at least 30 days.
One to two years: at least 60 days.
Two years or more: at least 90 days.

If the landlord skips or shortens this notice, your tenancy continues on the current terms until the full notice period has run from the day proper written notice actually arrived. Since April 2024, the notice also has to say whether your apartment is covered by Good Cause and, if not, explain the exemption.¹¹

Rent-stabilized tenants get their notice through the renewal lease itself, which must be offered 90 to 150 days before the current lease ends, with 60 days to accept.³

Security Deposit Top-Ups

When your rent goes up, the landlord can ask you to add to your security deposit so it still equals one month’s rent. That’s the ceiling. The total deposit can never be more than one month, but the landlord can collect the difference between your existing deposit and the new monthly rent.¹² Factor this in when you’re weighing whether to accept the renewal.

Rent Freezes for Seniors and People With Disabilities

New York City runs two programs that stop rent increases entirely. The Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) covers tenants 62 and older; the Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE) covers tenants 18 and older who receive certain disability benefits like SSI, SSDI, or a VA disability pension. For both, household income must be $50,000 or less, and you must spend more than one-third of your monthly income on rent.¹³

Approved applicants have their rent frozen at the current amount. The landlord recovers the difference through a property tax credit from the city, so there’s no reason for the landlord to push back. First-time applicants apply through the city’s Rent Freeze portal and have to renew each benefit period.¹⁴ The programs apply to rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments; market-rate eligibility varies.

If the Increase Comes Right After a Complaint

A landlord cannot raise your rent to punish you for reporting bad conditions. New York’s retaliation statute specifically treats an unreasonable renewal increase as retaliation when it follows a good-faith habitability complaint to the landlord or a government agency. If the increase or an eviction attempt comes within one year of your complaint, the law presumes retaliation, and the landlord has to prove a legitimate reason.¹⁵ The protection covers nearly all residential rentals, other than owner-occupied buildings with fewer than four units.

Challenging an Illegal Increase

Rent-stabilized tenants who think they’re being overcharged can file a complaint with New York State Homes and Community Renewal using form RA-89, either online through HCR’s portal or by mail.¹⁶ Pull together your current lease, payment records, and any written increase notices before filing. You can also request a rent history for your unit from HCR, which shows the rents registered over the years and often reveals gaps.

HCR can look back at least six years from the filing date. If it finds an overcharge, it can order the rent rolled back to the correct legal amount, freeze it until a proper adjustment is made, and require a refund of the overpayment. When the overcharge wasn’t willful, the refund includes interest. When HCR finds it was willful, the penalty is three times the overcharge.¹⁷

For market-rate tenants covered by Good Cause, the mechanism is different. If your landlord proposes an increase above the local rent standard and you think it’s unreasonable, you can refuse to pay and raise the issue as a defense if the landlord brings a nonpayment eviction case. The court then decides whether the landlord’s actual costs justified the amount.⁷

1
Rent Guidelines Board. 2025-26 Apartment/Loft Order #57
2
Homes and Community Renewal. Fact Sheet #40 – Preferential Rents
3
NYC Rent Guidelines Board. Leases FAQs
4
Homes and Community Renewal. Fact Sheet #5 – Vacancy Leases in Rent Stabilized Apartments
5
Homes and Community Renewal. Changes to NYS Housing Laws Enacted in the FY24 Budget
6
Division of Housing and Community Renewal. Fact Sheet #26 – Guide to Rent Increases for Rent Stabilized Apartments
7
Office of the New York State Attorney General. New York State Good Cause Eviction Law
8
NYC Housing Preservation and Development. Good Cause Eviction
9
Rent Guidelines Board. Rent Increases FAQs
10
NYC Rent Guidelines Board. Rent Control FAQs
11
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 226-C – Notice of Rent Increase or Non-Renewal of Residential Tenancy
12
Homes and Community Renewal. Fact Sheet #9 – Renting an Apartment – Security Deposits and Other Charges
13
NYC.gov. Qualifications – NYC Rent Freeze Program
14
NYC.gov. Apply or Renew – NYC Rent Freeze Program
15
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 223-B – Retaliation by Landlord Against Tenant
16
Homes and Community Renewal. Tenant/Owner Forms
17
Homes and Community Renewal. Rent Increases and Rent Overcharge