After Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village (STPCV) were sold, a group of tenants brought legal action to challenge the new owners ability to take apartments out of Rent Stabilization through the luxury decontrol rules which came into effect in 1994. Under that provision of the law, when rents exceed $2,000 on vacancy or when an existing tenants income exceeds $175,000 and the rent for their apartment exceeds $2,000 the owner could apply to DHCR to remove that apartment from Rent Stabilization. Since the law went into effect more than 64,599 apartments have been removed from Rent Stabilization under those provisions.
This article is based on the court decision and included discussions with agency staff. Data on the addition and loss of units to Rent Stabilization comes from Changes to the Rent Stabilized Housing Stock in New York City in 2006, a report of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board.