New York Rent Increase Rules: What Renters Need to Know
Last updated 2026-09-29
It depends entirely on whether your apartment is rent-stabilized or market-rate. Stabilized leases get an annual increase percentage set by a Rent Guidelines Board (a new number every cycle, so there's no fixed statutory cap to memorize); market-rate apartments have no percentage limit at all. Every tenancy in the state, stabilized or not, gets the same notice-period floor: 30 to 90 days depending on how long you've lived there, for any increase over 5% or a decision not to renew.
Check your increase against New York's rules
→ Related tools: full rent increase calculator · is a $300 increase normal?
Rent-stabilized vs. market-rate: the split that matters
Almost everything about your rights in New York depends on this one distinction. Rent-stabilized apartments (generally units in buildings with 6 or more units built before 1974, plus some newer buildings that took a tax abatement in exchange for stabilization) have their allowable increases set annually by a Rent Guidelines Board, not by the market. Market-rate apartments (most of the state, and most newer NYC construction) have no percentage cap at all. If you don't know which one you have, check your lease rider or ask your leasing office directly; it changes everything below.
→ See if your increase is negotiable
Rent stabilization increases
Rent-stabilized leases in New York City get their allowable increase from the NYC Rent Guidelines Board, a mayoral-appointed board that votes on new one-year and two-year renewal percentages every year, effective each October 1. Board orders have historically landed in the low single digits, but the exact figure is set fresh each cycle based on the board's own cost surveys. It is not a fixed statutory percentage the way California's cap is. Rent-stabilized tenants outside NYC (parts of Nassau, Westchester, and Rockland counties, among others) fall under their own local guidelines boards with their own separately-set rates.
Not sure if yours is fair?
Free market comparison built around your real numbers. Takes about two minutes.
Check My Renewal →This year's increase
We don't hardcode this figure because it changes every cycle, and a stale number here would be worse than none. The Rent Guidelines Board sets a new order for the 2025–2026 lease cycle (October 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026) each summer. Check the current, official order directly: rentguidelinesboard.cityofnewyork.us.
Checked 2026-09-29. This section is reviewed each cycle; it isn't a one-time write.
→ See if your increase is negotiable
Non-stabilized apartments
If your unit is market-rate, not rent-stabilized, New York places no percentage limit on your renewal increase at all. What you do still get, regardless of stabilization status, is the statewide notice-period protection below: a large increase (or a non-renewal) still requires real advance warning, even though there's no cap on the number itself.
→ See if your increase is negotiable
Notice requirements
For increases over 5% (or any non-renewal): 30 days’ notice under 1 year of tenancy, 60 days’ for 1–2 years, 90 days’ for 2+ years. This applies statewide, to stabilized and market-rate tenancies alike, whenever the increase exceeds 5% or the landlord doesn't intend to renew at all. An increase of 5% or less doesn't trigger this statute's notice floor, though your lease may still require its own notice period.
Source: New York Real Property Law §226-c (enacted by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019).
→ See if your increase is negotiable
Moving out and your rights
If you'd rather not accept the new price, you can decline and move out. The same tiered notice period above (30/60/90 days) is what you're entitled to before you need to vacate on a non-renewal. Your security deposit must be returned, with an itemized statement of any deductions, within 14 days of move-out under New York's deposit law (General Obligations Law §7-108).
→ See if your increase is negotiable