Why the cloudy picture? The most obvious is the rent freeze, which is one of the easiest things an NYC Mayor can implement. In fact, this happened three times under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mamdani, if he wins, will be able to pick who serves on the NYC Rent Guidelines Board, which sets the annual rates for stabilized units, representing about half of the city's two million total apartments.

"It might cause real angst for the part of smaller and mid-sized owners of rental buildings," Korbey told GlobeSt.

He added by questioning, "The concern there is that, how do you maintain the city's rental stock? How do you keep it in good condition, and how do you bring it up to where it needs to be, and make improvements? You've got some considerable issues with inflation, the cost of owning property and other expenses. It's a real challenge to do that in New York. At the end of the day, these properties need to be viable."

Adding to the unknown is that Albany is needed to ram through some of Mamdani's other policies, like tax hikes on the wealthy. So far, Governor Kathy Hochul has pushed back on his tax plans — but it remains unclear if it will stay that way. Also, many of Mamdani's other policies, including raising the minimum wage in NYC to $30 per hour, will require Albany.

A POTENTIAL POSITIVE

It's unclear what kind of an impact rent freezes could have on development — but Mamdani's plans could have a positive impact in one area. That's continuing to cut the red tape on zoning. Korbey, who has worked with NYC agencies, city council members and the Department of City Planning, can see the self-described Democratic socialist building on Eric Adams' City of Yes initiative, which amends the zoning code to loosen restrictions on residential developments.

"That may mean rezoning the neighborhoods where there may be some neighborhood opposition," he said of what Mamdani could potentially accomplish.

"I don't think he's afraid of density. I don't think he's afraid of trying to find neighborhoods that could be upzoned."

But going forward, overcoming local opposition to rezone certain neighborhoods will be a challenge, according to Korbey.

Specifically, some other housing policies that Mamdani campaigned on include increasing zoning capacity, getting rid of parking minimums and investments in preserved and publicly funded homes.

WORKING WITH THE PRIVATE SECTOR

Now, here is another interesting unknown: How would the 33-year-old work with the private sector to solve the city's housing crisis? While Mamdani, in a February housing policy posting, criticized private developers for prioritizing profits over affordability, he will likely need their help to flood the market with new developments. To meet the demand, Korbey envisions that NYC needs to build 50,000 units per year.

"I think he can be helpful with the private sector in identifying neighborhoods that can be rezoned and work with the City Council to avoid some of the hyper-localism that's gone on that's resulted in some of these neighborhood rezonings not moving forward," he explained.

To add to that point, Mamdani might be able to work with the private sector by streamlining the city's strict permitting process and making it less of a headache for developers.

CONVERSATIONS WITH BUSINESS LEADERS WILL CONTINUE

While a headwind of unknowns remains, Mamdani said recently on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he will continue to have conversations with business leaders to tackle the affordability crisis. His goal is to make the city work not only for lower-income brackets but also for the top one percent of New Yorkers as well.

A part of his administration could include Brad Lander, New York City's chief financial officer, whom Mamdani cross-endorsed during the Democratic Mayoral primary. Korbey wonders if Lander would serve as the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, should Mamdani win the general election in November. This is a move that could be welcomed by CRE.

"Brad was instrumental, in fact, he spearheaded the Gowanus canal rezoning, which has resulted in thousands of new units," Korbey said.

"He's somebody who has a relationship with the real estate community and somebody who has had a long history of addressing zoning and planning and development issues."

While uncertainty remains, Korbey said he's cautiously optimistic about the next likely Mayor of Gotham solving the housing crisis by building enough homes.