Gov. Andrew Cuomo today repeated his pledge to prevent rent-regulated apartments from leaving the system once they reach a certain price—a state policy change that would greatly shift the dynamics of the city's housing market.

Permissible increases for most of the city's regulated units are set each year by the Rent Guidelines Board. However, there are several laws that allow landlords to go beyond that threshold. Each time a unit becomes vacant or improvements are made, for example, owners can apply for a supplemental boost. And eventually the state's vacancy decontrol policy lets them remove their apartments from the system altogether once the price reaches $2,700 and the apartment is empty. In a speech at the New York Bar Association, Cuomo vowed to end the policy.

"The lack of affordable housing is a crisis across this state and across this nation," he said.

The change would keep a huge number of rent-regulated units in the system, but not all of them. Many apartments financed under city programs naturally exit rent regulation after, for example, the maturation of a low-interest mortgage on the property and would continue to do so. But by putting the measure in his policy speech, Cuomo has delivered a boost for tenant advocates who have long argued vacancy decontrol incentivizes landlords to harass tenants through intrusive construction and churn them in and out of their buildings.

Owners, on the other hand, have countered that decontrol acts as an incentive for owners to invest in their buildings and without it the low-cost housing stock will fall into disrepair. The political winds, however, are not blowing in their favor.

Not only did Cuomo take a firm step to the left in his speech—also pledging to legalize marijuana—but Democrats also will take control of both houses of the state Legislature come January and have made tenant-friendly reforms to the state's rent laws a priority. The results could go beyond vacancy decontrol to policing some of the other ways owners can increase rents.