No freeze for Blas’ tenants

Other landlords fume

Mayor de Blasio has vowed to bring relief to city renters — just not those living in his Park Slope apartments.

De Blasio jacked up the rent on two of his Brooklyn properties even while successfully pushing for rent freezes on the approximately 1 million apartments that fall under the rent-stabilization program, it was reported Monday.

The rent in one unit of a twofamily home owned by de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray jumped from $2,400 in 2009 to $2,850 last year, said a City Hall source, who confirmed figures first reported by Politico.

The annual hikes came and $75 increments.

Another unit in the wood-frame home, where de Blasio’s mother once lived, saw its rent go up by $25 to $1,825 in June 2015.

The first couple is also collecting $4,500 a month renting out their own home while they live in Gracie Mansion.

“It’s hypocritical and embarrassing to freeze rents in regulated units, but not his own,” said Jack Freund, executive vice president of the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents landlords.

The mayor called that characterization “totally inaccurate” during an interview on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” Monday night.

“You are talking about apples and oranges again,” he said. “The rent-stabilization laws [pertain] . . . in $50 to larger buildings, not to family homes that rent out apartments.

“In our cases, there was plenty of years that we did not increase the rent at all. In other years, we’ve had slight increases when there were specific repairs that had to be made.”

After disclosing the data for the past two years, his office decided this year that his apartment rentals are “private.”

Last month, de Blasio said he and his wife had a “personal rent freeze” at their apartments. But when asked about making the rent figures public, he demurred.

“The press office can talk to Chirlane McCray and see how she feels about answering that,” he said.

In each of the past two years, the Rent Guidelines Board — whose members are all appointed by the mayor — froze rents on new oneyear leases for rent-stabilized units.

This year’s increases, if any, would be determined after hearings that begin this month.

According to the board’s price index of landlord operating costs — including taxes, fuel, utilities and maintenance — expenses for owning a rent-stabilized building increased 6.2 percent last year.

The board said that it would call for a minimum increase of 3 percent for new one-year leases and 6 percent for two-year extensions.

But it’s a re-election year for the mayor, and landlords are bracing for a third straight rent freeze.

“That’s a real danger,” Freund said.