What’s expansion?

Most of the state’s regulated apartments are in New York City; a few are in Westchester County and on Long Island. Under the deal, other cities and towns could create their own regulations.

How many people would the new rules affect?

In New York City, more than two million people live in nearly one million regulated apartments . If cities and towns statewide adopt rent regulations, millions more people could be affected.

Real estate trade groups, which criticized the plan, said small landlords could be put out of business if they were unable to increase rents to deal with escalating costs.

“This legislation will not create a single new affordable housing unit, improve the vacancy rate or improve enforcement against the few dishonest landlords who tend to dominate the headlines,” Taxpayers for an Affordable New York, a coalition of the real estate groups, said in a statement.

What else is set to change?

Preferential rents: These are rents below the legal maximum that a landlord can charge, which may sound like a good deal for tenants. But under the old rules, landlords could increase preferential rents when leases were renewed. Under the new rules, preferential rents will be guaranteed.

Capital improvements: Landlords were able to increase rents by as much as 6 percent to pay for major building improvements. Under the deal, they can only add up to 2 percent.

Why is this happening now?

New York’s rent laws are set to expire on Saturday.

On a broader scale, the changes were the latest fallout from Democrats taking control of the Legislature after the 2018 election. Republicans previously controlled the Senate and routinely blocked sweeping changes to rent laws.