Are Nyc’s Wealthy Homebuyers Pausing Post Mamdani Win?

Earlier this week, New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani beat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary. The controversial candidate has been sending shockwaves through the real estate industry, according to several prominent real estate executives in the Big Apple.

“I’ve seen more pause for this event in terms of buying a home than any event in my 13 years in New York City real estate,” Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said in an interview with CNBC.

“And so buyers [are] saying they have a contract out, but they want to pause. They’re talking to their lawyers. They say, ‘I want to wait to see how this plays out on the other end.'”

“Why is the real estate market and a lot of income earners who pay taxes in New York City panicking as of yesterday? He’s [Mamdani] talked about anti-growth, anti-job. He’s opposed rezoning. He wants rent control everywhere, even on new construction,” Ryan Serhant, a celebrity broker and founder of SERHANT., told CNBC.

Serhant took it a step further in an interview with the New York Post. “My number one job will be moving people from New York to Florida. Again. Based on the results, clients are going to hold off on making any kind of investment in New York City.”

It’s a new day

In the sober light of day, NYC’s housing market is already calming down, according to Compass corporate broker Leonard Steinberg.

“Robert [Reffkin] was right. There was definitely an instant reaction to this. Mamdani’s win shocked a lot of people. When there is a shock, there’s usually an instant reaction,” Steinberg said. “After an instant reaction, you calm down, and you start evaluating the facts and the data, and then things become much more clear.”

Steinberg noted that it’s not a foregone conclusion for Mamdani to become the city’s mayor. And he added that “what politicians say to get elected and what they can actually do once they’re elected are very different.”

Bess Freedman, CEO of NYC-based brokerage Brown Harris Stevens, has fielded many calls from those concerned about Mamdani as mayor. But she also said, “We have thousands of agents. I’ve had one agent tell me that their buyer was going to just take a pause. People are out there still doing business, buying and selling.”

Freedman was also quick to note that the results of this mayoral primary has “created concern for the community as a whole, including the real estate developers and landlords.”

Has business come to a halt? Freedman and Steinberg say no. And while Freedman calls Mamdani’s policies “a threat to the future of the city … people should understand, even if he is elected, he doesn’t just get to come in with a magic wand and all these policies are enacted.”