Mamdani Announces City-Backed Insurance Program

The city is set to launch a publicly backed insurance option for rent-stabilized and affordable housing, City Hall announced Thursday, according to The Real Deal. The insurance program will be capitalized with an unclear amount of city funds, but not directly managed by the city. The program will offer property and liability insurance premiums 20 to 30% lower than the existing market, city officials estimate. The initiative seems to be an attempt by Mamdani to make peace with landlords as his promised rent freeze for stabilized apartments is likely just weeks away. The rent freeze, a marquee part of the mayor’s platform, drew ire from landlords who said it would push their buildings to the brink. Late in the campaign, Mamdani said he would try to address the expense side of landlords’ balance sheets. The proposal received statements of support from the Real Estate Board of New York, the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, the New York Housing Conference and others. Leila Bozorg, deputy mayor for housing and planning, said the program would lower premiums for landlords by taking advantage of the city’s lower cost of capital, lower overhead and lower profit expectation. This would in turn save money for the city, according to Bozorg, citing a statistic that the city’s affordable housing arm spends $1,200 underwriting new transactions for every $100 increase in insurance costs a landlord faces. The city expects savings to eventually reach $500 million, Bozorg said. The administration aims to get the insurance option up and running by 2027. That will involve first hiring an actuary or risk consultant to help design the program, which City Hall has said it will start moving on this week. Over the summer, the city’s Economic Development Corporation will solicit proposals from providers to structure, manage and operate the program. The Mamdani administration hopes to cover 20,000 units with the program in 2027, moving up to 100,000 by 2030. There are about 1 million rent-stabilized units in the five boroughs.

https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2026/04/16/mamdani-announces-city-backed-insurance-option/