During a meeting held the evening of June 26 in the Common Council’s chamber at White Plains City Hall, the Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) approved rent hikes of 2% for one-year leases and 3% for two-year leases in the apartments for which it regulates rents.
The vote to approve the rent increases was 5 to 3, with 5 votes needed for the board to pass an action. The board was expected to ratify the vote in September and allow landlords to raise rents effective Oct. 1 of this year through Sept. 30, 2026.
Moments before, the RGB had defeated a proposal that would have allowed a 3% rate increase for one-year leases and a 4.5% increase for two-year leases. The RGB had conducted a number of public meetings as part of its process to gather information and comments to help it determine the appropriate increases. Landlords as well as tenants made their arguments for and against various levels of rent hikes.
The RGB gathered data related to 420 buildings in Westchester that include 14,321 housing units, of which 12,736 are subject to rent regulation under Emergency Tenant Protection Act terms. Data the RGB collected regarding operations showed that rental incomes increased by 2.4% from 2023 to 2024. Expenses including depreciation increased by 1.8% from 2023 to 2024. Fuel made up 9.6% of the expenses aside from depreciation. Utilities were 5.4%, payroll 8.9%, real estate taxes 18%, insurance 8.3%, management costs 8%, repairs and maintenance 15.3%, interest 13.5% and miscellaneous 3%.
In a draft of a document that it planned to use to formally record its decision, the RGB explained that it formulates rent increase allowances based on, among other things, cost increases experienced in the past year, its forecasts of cost increases over the next year, its determination of the relevant operating and maintenance cost-to-rent ratio and other relevant information concerning the state of the residential real estate industry.
According to federal Department of Labor statistics, the inflation rate in the New York Metro area (New York-Newark-Jersey City) was 3.4% for the 12 months ending in May 2025. The national inflation rate for the 12 months ending in May 2025 was 2.4%.
In reacting to the RGB’s vote, Alana Ciuffetelli, chair of the Building and Realty Institute of Westchester’s (BRI) Apartment Owners Advisory Council, said, “Once again, we’re staring down the same math problem with the same dangerous answer. These increases do not match the surging costs of insurance, fuel, water, repairs, and local compliance. It’s becoming nearly impossible to keep buildings safe and well-maintained without the financial tools to do so.”
BRI in a statement said that while the new increases prevent what it called “another destructive rent freeze,” they again fall short of what is required to keep up with rising costs. BRI said that the board’s approved adjustments amount to a real-dollar rent cut for property owners managing aging, rent-stabilized buildings.
The organization said that the inability to raise rents in step with costs has led to widespread devaluation of rent-stabilized buildings, diminishing access to financing for critical repairs and even threatening bank portfolios.
Ciuffetelli said that the RGB’s vote “sends a clear message to owners: keep providing more with less. But this model is unsustainable and eventually we’re all going to pay the price.”
