Will Ending a Lucrative Tax Break Ease or Fuel the N.Y.C. Housing Crisis?

The group helps the 421a substitute plan proposed by Governor Hochul.

“We’re not going to argue to maintain the prevailing program due to that disconnect, that’s an essential disconnect that must be addressed,” mentioned Basha Gerhards, the group’s senior vice chairman of planning.

REBNY claims that some tax aid is important in New York to supply and keep reasonably priced housing as a result of land and building prices and property taxes are so excessive. With out help, the group mentioned, banks could contemplate the initiatives financially infeasible.

“The query is: Do we wish these items?” mentioned Zach Steinberg, REBNY’s senior vice chairman of coverage, referring to below-market houses. “As a result of that’s what we’re speaking about. We’d like these housing items in New York Metropolis.”

Within the months earlier than it expires, some progressive elected officers and housing advocates have argued that the tax break ought to be scrapped altogether.

At a current rally in Downtown Brooklyn, the place the tax exemption has fueled a surge in high-end residential building, Mr. Lander, the comptroller, urged state lawmakers to as a substitute repair the town’s uneven property tax system by decreasing tax charges on new house buildings, growing them on condominiums and offering tax aid for low-income property homeowners.

Matthew Koziolek, a mental-health therapist, and his spouse, a public-school instructor, spent greater than a 12 months making use of for reasonably priced items on the town’s housing lottery web site. With a mixed earnings of about $100,000, the couple certified, on paper at the least, for a number of flats in Queens however none that they may truly afford on their price range, together with a two-bedroom residence in Jackson Heights listed at $2,400 a month.