Wealthy New Yorkers Pause Property Deals After Zohran Mamdani's Primary Win

In the hours following Zohran Mamdani's win in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, wealthy buyers started exploring property options outside the city.

Luxury real estate agents said they noticed a sudden surge in inquiries from high-end buyers looking to pause the deals in New York and are turning to more tax-friendly and stable markets such as Uruguay, Milan, and Florida, The New York Post reported.

Real estate agent Ryan Serhant said some venture capitalists, startup founders, and bankers are holding off on making any kind of investment in properties in New York City.

He added that a woman who made an offer to buy an apartment in Chelsea quickly emailed her agent, saying, "We're going to stop looking for now until we know more about what's going to happen in the mayoral race."

Nathan Zeder, a real estate broker in Florida, said he had already sold $1.8 billion worth of real estate in Florida so far this year.

The interest in properties outside NYC appears to be a response to Mr Mamdani's proposed three housing policies aimed at easing the burden on renters. 

The first policy is to freeze rent increases on rent-stabilised apartments. This, once implemented, would prevent landlords from raising rent on these units. Currently, landlords are allowed to increase rent each year, but Mr Mamdani wants to freeze those rents entirely.

The second policy is to build 200,000 new affordable homes in New York City over the next decade to help low and middle-income people. The third policy involves taking strict action against landlords who break housing rules.

In addition to this, Mr Mamdani wants to add a flat 2 per cent tax on people earning more than $1 million per year. He also proposed hiking the corporate tax rate from 9 per cent to 11.5 per cent to match New Jersey's rate, reported Forbes.