Billionaire Sternlicht says Mamdani’s rent freeze policy ‘will turn New York City into Mumbai’
“Over $100 million, every project in New York has to go to the union, and that’s very expensive. That leads to extremely expensive housing. And other developers have tried to cut deals with the unions, but they run New York, and that’s one of the main reasons why the blue states are so expensive and it’s so hard to add housing supply to them,” Sternlicht said in reaction to Mamdani’s win in an interview with CNBC Property Play.
“And then the far left gets really crazy and says tenants don’t have to pay. Well, you can’t kick them out if they don’t pay. So the neighbor finds out the neighbor didn’t pay, they don’t pay, and the next guy doesn’t pay, and then you literally turn New York City into Mumbai,” he said.
Sternlicht said the New York team was also considering leaving the city.
“It’s not the core issues it’s focused on. We need to increase housing. That’s not going to be easy, is it? You need serious subsidies from the government if they want us to work with unions. Unions have to be more compliant with labor laws and wages and everything else, otherwise you can’t add economically,” he said. Sternlicht said a rent freeze is not the solution, but increasing housing is.
Sternlicht said he believes New York will survive, but it will get much worse before it gets better. “People work really hard. How can we help others be successful and believe in the American dream? That’s probably a better message for a leader in the city than saying, let’s tax everyone who’s successful, force them to leave, and then we have to rely on Washington for help to keep the city going,” Sternlicht added.
