“We’re in a new climate,” she said. “I think we can’t look to past Rent Guidelines Board increases as indications of what will happen in the future."

Asked by event moderator and Crain's senior reporter Daniel Geiger whether this meant that owners could expect the Board to sign off on rent bumps larger than 1.5% increase for one-year leases and 2.5% for two-year leases it approved in June, Carroll pointed out that the panel does not fall under her agency's purview. But she noted its decisions are supposed to take into account the financial burdens landlords face in maintaining their properties.

"The Rent Guidelines Board looks at absolute data and expenses," she said. "I have faith that the people on the Rent Guidelines Board will do what they think is appropriate, and you can't take those past increases as any indication."

Carroll also said that the city intended to extend greater subsidies and loans to landlords struggling to pay for improvements, and would look to underwrite the purchase of struggling rent-regulated buildings by nonprofits. She also vowed that the administration would soon propose an expansion to the J-51 program, a tax incentive for investments in residential buildings.

"Right now our reimbursement in that program has not kept up," she said. "What we would like to do is really work with landlords."