At New York City Council graduated in Community Opportunity to Buy Act (COPA) on Thursday afternoon after six years of revisions and the mayor’s veto.
The law, passed 38-9 by City Council members, gives nonprofit organizations — with or without joint venture partners — first dibs on rent-stabilized buildings for sale. The aim is to move some of the housing stock away from the private sector or for-profit employers.
The amended bill gives non-profit buyers a raise, which requires sellers to notify New York City Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) when listing a property so potential buyers have 70 days to submit an offer.
But one of the main changes in the bill gives the seller more of an advantage: they can apply for exemption arguing undue financial hardship. That is becoming more common for landlords of rent-stabilized properties, who are experiencing increased costs and little relief, especially after the Mayor. Zohran Mamdani‘s controversial freeze on rent increases in this sector that went into effect October 1.
Additionally, COPA will only apply to properties that address multiple HPD or HPD violations New York City Department of Buildings and those involved in the city’s remediation program.
Mamdani generally supported the bill in Maybe likely to enter into law this time around.
But the program may not be a breakthrough for the nonprofit the City Council trusts.
“Nonprofit buildings in many ways don’t pay property taxes and are still struggling financially, which shows that this is as much a cost issue as it is a revenue issue,” Kenny BurgosCEO of Apartment Association of New Yorksaid in an interview with Commercial Observer. “We’ve had a perfect storm of uncontrollable factors like interest rates and COVID, but only controllable factors like government regulations and laws and rent freezes have piled up. Now we’ve met a moment of inevitability.
“Nonprofits already own and operate housing in our city, and they’re showing that it can’t be done,” Burgos added.
The root cause of problems in rental housing can be the same for nonprofits as well as for-profits. High interest rates, rising insurance costs and skyrocketing utility prices have left many landlords without the liquidity to maintain repairs, let alone make upgrades.
Until 57,000 rent stabilized units are currently vacantwhich is a 70 percent increase since 2019, according to New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
Former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed COPA as one of the last acts in office after the bill failed to gain a supermajority in the chamber. When the City Council tried to override the veto in January 2026lack of support from board members.
Mark Hallum can be reached mhallum@commercialobserver.com.