The number of empty regulated apartments nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021, a state memo obtained by The City shows; New York City landlords are keeping tens of thousands of rent-stabilized units off the market a phenomenon tenant activists call “warehousing.” 

We need to remember in 2019 a major overhaul in Albany of the state's rent laws, blocked landlords from significantly jacking up rents on vacant units when letting them to new tenants, that's why The Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing, a collective of tenants and 15 community organizations, has been calling attention to the trend, claiming that landlords are fabricating housing scarcity to manipulate legislative changes in Albany creating “fake scarcity” to raise prices and it deprives New Yorkers of needed housing. Rent-stabilized apartments represent nearly half of all rental housing in the city and are among the most affordable places to live in, for that reason we hope that this whole matter is clarified for the good of both tenants and landlords.

Rabiyah, S. (2022) More than 60,000 Rent-Stabilized Apartments Are Now Vacant — and Tenant Advocates Say Landlords Are Holding Them for ‘Ransom. The city. https://www.thecity.nyc/housing/2022/10/19/23411956/60000-rent-stabilized-apartments-vacant-warehousing-nyc-landlords-housing