However, the real estate industry has fiercely opposed the legislation, warning it could sow chaos in the rental market and devastate the livelihoods of the city’s roughly 25,000 real estate agents.
“This is the start of a top-down government-controlled housing system,” said Jordan Silver, a broker with Brown Harris Stevens, told The Associated Press. “The language is so incredibly vague we actually have no idea what this would look like in the world.”
Supporters, including labor unions and housing advocacy groups, argue that broker fees prevent low-income New Yorkers from relocating and act as a barrier to housing affordability.
The bill’s sponsor, city councilman Chi Ossé, said he was motivated by a recent “tiring, treacherous, and competitive” apartment search.
Broker fees were previously banned under a 2020 state law aimed at protecting renters but were quickly reinstated following a lawsuit led by the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). Currently, about half of the city’s apartments come with a tenant-paid broker fee, often set at 15% of the annual rent. In Manhattan, where the median monthly rent recently hit $4,500, this could mean a fee as high as $8,100.
