Bank CEOs press Mamdani to get more New York housing built

[NEW YORK] The heads of Bank of America (BOA) and Goldman Sachs Group said this week they have pressed New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to get more apartments built in the city, a move they said would help with affordability.

“The advice I give to all the mayors I talk to, including the mayor of New York, is build more housing because it’s a supply problem,” BOA chief executive officer Brian Moynihan said in an interview on Wednesday (Jun 3) with Fox News Channel. “And you have the right to drive supply. You don’t need to add money to it, you can just permit things and make things happen faster.”

Moynihan’s comments follow similar ones from Goldman CEO David Solomon in an appearance at the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday.

“When I met with the mayor, I started by asking him what was on his mind, and we started talking about housing,” said Solomon, whose firm backs apartments in the the city through its Urban Investment Group. “Housing is incredibly important. Affordable housing is incredibly important.”

Mamdani last month released a US$22 billion housing plan that aims to build 200,000 new affordable homes and preserve an additional 200,000 existing apartments and homes over the next decade. The plan calls for zoning and regulatory changes to ease red tape that contributes to high building costs and construction delays.

Mamdani held meetings last month with bank CEOs that came after the mayor backed a flurry of proposals pushing for higher taxes on the wealthy. That support prompted blowback from the billionaire class and the real estate industry. BLOOMBERG