AAFE joined city officials and City Councilmember Ritchie Torres at City Hall Oct. 30 for the release of the first-ever Speculation Watch List.
The list, which will be published quarterly, identifies recently sold rent-regulated buildings where potentially predatory investment may put tenants at risk. The initiative is the result of legislation enacted earlier this year. AAFE is part of the Stabilizing NYC Coalition, which advocated for the law.
The Speculation Watch List is available on the website of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). It is a resource to support tenant advocacy and organizing.
Here’s more from HPD:
When including buildings on the Speculation Watch List, HPD looks for rent-regulated buildings that sell at much higher than expected prices, which can signal that new landlords may raise rents, reduce services, or otherwise force out rent-regulated tenants to realize their investment. The buildings included on the list have lower capitalization rates—where a building’s income cannot support its purchase price—than average for each borough. HPD also published a separate, broader list of all rent-regulated building sales and their capitalization rates in the City to allow for additional analysis of data that has not been publicly available previously.
You can see the first Speculation Watch List here. If you are a tenant in a rent-stabilized building, AAFE may be able to help. Contact us at our offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens.
