Tim Cook built Apple's China era

Tim Cook's China strategy has powered the company's rise and now shapes its biggest risks.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

• Tim Cook left his mark on the tech world, but one of the most important parts of his legacy lies in China.
• Cook turned China into the backbone of Apple's global business.
• Here's how Cook made China central to Apple's growth, turning risks into rewards.

One of Tim Cook's defining legacies is clear: He made China the backbone of Apple's global business.

Apple announced on Monday that John Ternus, its senior vice president of hardware engineering and long seen as Cook's likely successor, will take over as chief executive. Cook will remain as executive chairman.

Cook's bet on China as the engine of Apple's rise helped shape one of the world's most valuable companies. It also bound Apple's fortunes to a market that is as much a source of risk as it is of growth.

Here's how Cook made China core to Apple.

Cook scaled China into Apple's factory floor

VCG/VCG via Getty Images

When Cook joined Apple in 1998, the company was clawing its way back from the brink. In 1997, cofounder Steve Jobs said Apple was about 90 days from bankruptcy.

Cook was brought in to fix operations, and he made a radical call: shifting production to China. A network of manufacturers in that country was not only cheaper, but faster and easier to scale.

A key moment of this shift came when Cook met Terry Gou around 2000. Gou's company, Foxconn, would go on to become Apple's key manufacturing partner — assembling early iPods after their 2001 debut and later playing a crucial role in producing the iPhone when it launched in 2007.

At that time, China was also pushing to move up the value chain, encouraging factories to produce more advanced electronics instead of low-cost goods like toys and garments.

The decision to manufacture in China proved to be a payoff. By the time the iPhone era took off, Apple could launch products globally at a scale and speed competitors struggled to match.

He expanded Apple's business inside China

credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Cook has been credited with making China an important consumer market for Apple.

In 2001, Apple officially entered China with a Shanghai-based trading company. By the early 2010s, it was rapidly expanding its retail footprint, opening stores in major cities.

One of the biggest breakthroughs came in 2013, when Apple struck a deal with China Mobile, then the world's largest carrier by subscribers. The partnership gave the iPhone access to hundreds of millions of potential customers and marked a turning point for Apple's presence in the country.

"We see this as bringing the world's best smartphone to the very largest and now the fastest network in China," Cook said in an interview with CNBC in 2014.

Cook also broadened Apple's reach beyond major cities through carrier partnerships and reseller networks, helping it tap a wider customer base as local rivals gained ground.

The company's China business has also grown over the past decade, from about $59 billion, or about 25% of revenue in 2015, to about $64 billion in 2025, cementing it as one of the company's biggest markets.

Apple topped China's smartphone market last year, holding about 22% share.

Cook managed a delicate balance between the US and China

Apple CEO Tim Cook and other tech executives visited Tokyo this month with President Donald J. Trump to promote Japanese investment in the US.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

For Apple to succeed in China, Cook had to walk a political tightrope between Washington and Beijing.

In the US, Cook lobbied officials to emphasize the potential harm tariffs would cause to American consumers and businesses, framing Apple's success as integral to US economic interests.

In 2019, he engaged President Donald Trump on the impact of tariffs on Chinese imports and competition from the South Korean company Samsung Electronics. Trump later said Cook had made a "good case" that tariffs would put Apple at a disadvantage against competitors.

US trade regulators then approved 10 out of 15 tariff exemption requests, easing pressure on Apple's China-based supply chain. In 2025, Apple's smartphones and other electronics were also spared from tariffs.

At the same time, Cook worked to maintain strong ties in China, even as US-China tensions escalated during the 2018 trade war.

He regularly met Chinese regulators and senior officials, and attended high-level forums such as the China Development Forum to reinforce Apple's position in the country.

He invested heavily in China's ecosystem

Ted S. Warren-Pool/Getty Images

Cook didn't just rely on China to build Apple's products — he invested in the ecosystem to make that possible.

In 2016, Apple invested $1 billion in Didi Chuxing, then the country's dominant ride-hailing platform.

Cook said the deal would help the company better understand China, its second-biggest market. The firm said Apple's investment was the largest ever investment in its history.

"We'll learn a lot about the business and the Chinese market beyond what we currently know," Cook said in 2016.

Over the years, Apple has poured significant resources into China. In 2021, Tim Cook signed an agreement with Chinese officials worth about $275 billion, aimed at easing regulatory pressure on the company's operations.

The deal included commitments to invest in retail expansion, research and development centers, and renewable energy projects, according to a report by The Information.

In 2025, Cook told China's industry minister that Apple would keep investing in the country. Cook also unveiled plans for a $101 million new energy fund during a visit to China in March 2025.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/0eQZfTh

A talent CEO says data centers are a 'massive opportunity' for office workers to pivot mid-career

Carrie Charles is the CEO of Broadstaff, a recruiting and staffing agency.

Carrie Charles

• Carrie Charles, CEO of Broadstaff, highlights data centers as a growth area for tech workers.
• Data center technician jobs are increasing, offering hands-on work with evolving technology.
• Demand for skilled electricians in data centers could lead to high salaries and large opportunities.

A talent CEO says all the recently laid-off tech workers wading through corporate America's sluggish job market should look to one growing area: data centers.

Carrie Charles is the CEO and cofounder of Broadstaff, a staffing and recruiting firm that works with companies like Oracle and Verizon. She says that with Big Tech's AI infrastructure buildout underway across the country, Broadstaff's business is booming.

Aside from all the construction workers needed to build data centers, Charles says she constantly fields staffing inquiries for skilled electricians and technicians to install and maintain the physical hardware inside the facilities.

"Our phone has never rang so much in our 10 years as a staffing company," Charles said. "The space is on fire right now — it's wild."

Charles sees a disconnect between the demand for data center talent and the thousands of laid-off desk workers struggling to find a new 9-to-5 office job.

Data center job listings increased by 64% between 2023 and 2025, Deloitte found. Industry leaders also say job openings outpace recruitment. A survey from industry organization Uptime Institute found that 54% of data center executives reported talent acquisition as their main hurdle.

"Young people — people in their 40s — getting laid off is all over the media, and it's this massive shock," Charles said. "But there's a massive opportunity over here."

Data centers offer a limited number of permanent jobs per facility. Still, Charles said the market is expanding as more large data centers pop up across the country.

Employment at data centers in the US increased by over 60% from 2016 to 2023, according to the US Census Bureau.

Working as a data center technician could be a good fit for someone who likes being hands-on but isn't ready to fully let go of the corporate world.

"It's almost like a white-collar trade job," Charles said. "It's a technical role, but you're not sitting all day long."

Data center technician jobs are growing

A data center technician does on-site tech support and hardware maintenance. The job can be physically demanding, Charles said, and sometimes it involves moving between sites if you work for a company with multiple data centers in a region.

As data center technology evolves rapidly, more companies are launching their own training programs for entry-level workers.

For instance, the Uptime Institute offers a data center certification program that takes five days to complete.

"It all comes down to positioning," Charles said. "You're bringing skills like operations, troubleshooting, reliability, or even customer experience."

Advanced technicians can make $80,000 to $100,000

Technicians are "not going to immediately start making six figures," and entry-level data center technicians can make between $45,000 and $65,000 a year, Charles said.

While having a background in IT or completing certification programs can be helpful in landing a job, employers mostly look for a "can-do" and "no task too small" mindset in entry-level employees, she added.

"You might be working from 7:00 p.m to 7:00 a.m.," Charles said. "They want to make sure you're the kind of person who will do the job and stay in the role."

Technicians can move up relatively quickly to more advanced technician or facilities management roles.

"With a few basic certifications and a willingness to work shifts, you can ramp quickly," Charles said. "In most cases, you are back to that $80,000 to $100,000 a year range within 18 to 24 months."

Specialized electricians can make $200,000 to $300,000

If you have a higher risk tolerance, Charles recommends becoming a licensed electrician and seeking out apprenticeships with data center specialists. For instance, Broadstaff works with Wachter, a national electrical contractor that works with large data centers and offers apprenticeship programs.

Although becoming a licensed electrician can require four to five years of trade school and multiple apprenticeships, it's a path that can yield a larger payout in the long run.

Senior electricians can easily make over six figures, Charles said, and those with specialized knowledge of data center technology, such as liquid cooling and fiber cabling, can make between $200,000 and $300,000 a year.

Electricians are expected to be in high demand over the next decade. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 81,000 job openings for electricians annually through 2034. BLS says the job outlook for electricians is growing "much faster" than most other occupations.

Gen Z is already on board with blue-collar trade work. Charles says it's time for everyone else to catch up and start viewing blue-collar jobs as viable careers.

Going to law school in your 30s or 40s is a similar commitment to becoming certified as an electrician, Charles said. Both require years of training from the ground up and come with short-term financial setbacks — and high long-term salary potential.

"It's hard, and there's an element of risk," Charles said. "But the opportunities are massive. You have to take a step back to take a step forward."

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/50Nw8Pv

China's robot half-marathon came with plenty of chaos — and one broken record

Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

• China's humanoid robot half-marathon produced a record-breaking run.
• Still, falls and mishaps during the race drew attention and laughs.
• A robot was carried off on a stretcher, while another had engineers in pursuit.

China once again staged a half-marathon for humanoid robots. It delivered a record — and plenty of chaos.

A robot from Chinese smartphone and gadget maker Honor clocked 50 minutes and 26 seconds at the event in Beijing on Sunday, according to a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area.

That time beats the current human half-marathon world record set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, who finished in 57 minutes and 20 seconds last month.

Honor's robot's performance is a leap forward from the inaugural race last year, when the fastest robot took 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds to finish. Participation also surged from about 20 teams to more than 100 this year.

The race wasn't just about speed — it delivered plenty of comic moments. Clips circulating on social media captured the messier side of the half-marathon.

In a video posted on Instagram on Sunday, one robot stumbled at the starting line, crashing face-first and breaking apart on impact. Its limbs were scattered across the track.

Staff rushed in with a stretcher, gathering the pieces in a scene that resembled a first-aid effort.

"Helpppp why did they run over and put it on a stretcher im CRYING," one user wrote in a comment on the Instagram post.

Another Instagram video showed the Honor robot veering into a barricade late in the race. It recovered and kept going to the finish line, while engineers jogged behind, clutching control devices. It made for a good laugh.

"Dudes were really trying to keep up with that thing," a user commented on the post.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CHINA MINUTES (@chinaminutes)

On X, compilations of robots falling and malfunctioning during the marathon went viral. In one video posted by @SilviusBerthold, robots were seen crashing into barricades, collapsing mid-run, and twitching on the track.

China has been racing to develop and deploy humanoid robots, even experimenting with integrating AI agents such as OpenClaw.

In a January earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the biggest rivals to Optimus would likely come from China.

Still, mishaps involving Chinese robots have continued to make headlines. In February, a humanoid robot from XPeng flopped face-first during a public showcase. XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng likened the moment to "children learning to walk."

In another incident earlier this year, a humanoid robot developed by Unitree kicked an engineer in the groin during a test.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/hXBGYyR

The 'unsexy' side of robotaxis: This AV hype conference showed me an industry that wants to grow up

Ride AI, an autonomous vehicle hype conference, centered on the AV industry trying to commercialize.

Lloyd Lee/BI

• Ride AI, an autonomous vehicle hype conference, was hosted in San Francisco, a hub for robotaxis.
• The AV industry's focus has shifted away from building the technology to building a viable business.
• Company leaders told Business Insider the question now centers on how to economically scale.

The AV hype conference has moved away from the hype.

On a Wednesday morning at SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, Ride AI held its second conference, focused on all things autonomous vehicles, with more than 300 attendees. This year's theme: "It's time to market."

There was a lot of talk around the business, infrastructure, and operations side that goes into deploying an autonomous service — the "unsexy" side of the industry, as Chris Lichtmannecker, Mobileye's director of autonomous mobility, told me.

We're past talking about the technology — although there was one panel on AI "upgrading" AVs — and more on how the industry can make a viable business case out of it all. And with any talk of go-to-market opportunities, the JPMorgans and the McKinseys of the world follow.

"It seemed to me that they came here to see who to invest in," Sophia Tung, one of the Ride AI organizers and moderators, told me of the outsize presence of bankers and consultants. Another attendee told me that McKinsey showed up just to see which slides to include in their presentations.

To see where the conversation has gone since Ride AI in 2025 is striking, given that most people have yet to step inside a self-driving car. In the US today, there's only one company that could be considered a serious, daily alternative to a human-driven or human-supervised ride-hailing service: Waymo.

A line of robotaxis and aspiring self-driving cars were parked outside Ride AI.

Lloyd Lee/BI

Nowhere else in the world are you going to see a Waymo, Tesla, Wayve, Uber robotaxi, and a personal robocar from Tensor parked along the same street. At least not for now.

Ro Gupta, CEO of Toyota's growth fund Woven Capital, told me that simply being able to tell someone that they can travel to San Francisco and try a real robotaxi is meaningful progress.

"It's that famous quote of: 'The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed.'" Gupta said. "If a family member asks me about it, I say, 'Just forget what I tell you. Go to San Francisco, Phoenix, or Miami and experience it for yourself.' We weren't able to say that until very recently."

Company leaders also told me the industry has matured — at least more so than during the pre-2023 hype cycle. At the time, people insisted that robotaxis were around the corner. Instead, companies overpromised timelines and saw serious safety incidents, including when an Uber test vehicle killed a pedestrian.

Lior Ron, chief operating officer of Waabi, said the industry previously overpromised and underdelivered, but now has a better grasp on how to build a business with self-driving technology.

"We saw a lot of very smart engineers, roboticists, just throwing themselves at the technical challenge without really thinking through and understanding the end markets," Ron said, later adding that the next five years are going to center on the question of scaling.

Kaity Fischer, who worked at three different robotaxi ventures before joining Wayve in 2021 as its director of business development and partnerships, said that a decade ago, she saw an industry that insisted on handling every part of the robotaxi ecosystem itself, from the technology to the operations, which is incredibly capital-intensive.

Uber partnered with Lucid Motors and Nuro to launch a commercial robotaxi service in San Francisco by late 2026.

Lloyd Lee/BI

In 2026, it seems like a week won't go by without a robotaxi player announcing a partnership with a major ride-hailing company.

"Now we're to the point of seeing there is a commercialization opportunity," Fischer said.

Opportunity is the keyword here. Robotaxis are not yet a profitable business.

The past few years have weeded out companies from legacy automakers like General Motors' Cruise and Ford's Argo AI. Apple shut down its self-driving EV program. And Uber divested its in-house autonomous vehicle division, opting for the partnership route. The survivors are making real headway with real-world miles driven without a human driver.

It's serious players only now.

"The tourists left a long time ago," Gupta said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/XDmiWpN

Hedge funds are spending fortunes to win the talent war. It's changing the industry in the process.

Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

The must-read story in the $5 trillion hedge fund industry used to be about who made the biggest trade or launched the biggest fund. Now it's about who made the biggest hire or got the biggest guaranteed payout.

As the increasingly institutional space has veered away from star funds run by a single genius to sprawling investment platforms with dozens of investing teams, the industry has grappled with a shortage of talent.

It's now such a finite resource that top portfolio managers are commanding deals that resemble those of professional athletes, and top managers accustomed to poaching their choice of talent by paying top dollar are now developing more talent in-house to cut expenses.

Business Insider has closely covered the evolution of hedge funds. See our stories below on the state of play, how the industry is changing, and who the new stars are.

The state of play

The numbers are staggering, with guaranteed nine-figure payouts and years-long non-compete clauses, but the anecdotes of what it's like inside the biggest funds are just as startling.

Firms dangle the prospect of relocating to tax havens like Puerto Rico and Dubai to entice top traders. Recruiters are being pushed into ethical gray areas to determine the truth about potential hires. While white-collar career ladders are collapsing in other industries, hedge funds are accutally building them.

How it's changing the industry

Whenever this much money is flowing, there's bound to be ripple effects. Within hedge funds, this means the introduction of both new industry players and new roles within the largest firms.

As with any gold rush, people are picking up an ax in the hopes of carving out a little piece for themselves. It's up to the powers-that-be of the industry to decide what's real and what's fool's gold.

The competition for the top PM talent scouts

One subset of the industry that has been thrust into the spotlight during the talent shortage is the group of individuals who find top PMs.

Recruiters and business development professionals at the industry's biggest managers have seen their own worth soar in recent years. With a steady flow of fresh capital into hedge funds, this cohort is likely to remain in demand for years to come.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/6C1UBxV

Where to watch World Snooker Championship: Live stream 2026 frames free from anywhere

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

Zhao Xintong will attempt to defend his title at the World Snooker Championship.

George Wood/Getty Images

The World Snooker Championship returns to the famous Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, for the 50th time as 32 of the world's best players compete to be crowned the world champion. In this guide, we'll explain where to watch World Snooker Championship 2026 live streams, with information on free channels and platforms.

And there's great news for snooker fans in the UK, as every frame will be shown absolutely free thanks to the BBC and its iPlayer streaming website and app. Elsewhere, the entire tournament will be available on the dedicated WST Play platform, including in the US, Canada, and Australia.

Where to watch World Snooker Championship: quick links

• UK: BBC iPlayer (FREE)
• US: WST Play (~$9.50)
• Canada: WST Play (~CA$13)
• Australia: WST Play (~AU$13)
• Access streaming from anywhere: NordVPN (30-day money-back guarantee)
• When: April 18—May 4, 2026

This time 12 months ago, Zhao Xintong walked out of the Crucible having made history as the first ever player from China to win the World Championship. He was superb throughout, but really stamped his authority on things by destroying seven-time champ Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semis. After that, his comfortable final win over Mark Williams and a check to the sum of £500,000 (around $675,000) seemed a mere formality.

In order to go back-to-back, however, he'll have to defy the so-called 'Crucible Curse' — no first-time winner of the World Snooker Championship has been able to retain the title in the five decades that the tournament has been held at the venue. And there are plenty of worthy opponents waiting to stop him, such as O'Sullivan, Williams, world No. 1 Judd Trump, and in-form 2010 champion Neil Robertson. Not to mention the record 10 other Chinese entries, with Wuhan Open winner Xiao Guodong the highest ranked among them.

Where to watch World Snooker Championship for free in the UK

As ever, the free-to-air BBC has extensive live coverage of the 2026 World Snooker Championship. In addition to televised action across its BBC One, Two, and Four channels, the broadcaster will show every single shot and pot on its free online BBC iPlayer platform and BBC Sport website. As well as smartphones and laptops, iPlayer is available to stream on pretty much every streaming device you can think of.

For an alternative commentary and analysis, UK snooker fans can also watch on TNT Sports — available with certain Sky, Virgin Media, and EE TV plans, or through an HBO Max subscription costing from $26 a month.

How to watch World Snooker Championship from anywhere

Watching the 2026 World Snooker Championship for free in the UK is easy. But try accessing BBC iPlayer when abroad and you'll discover that you can't due to geo-blocking. Thankfully, you can get around this annoyance with a VPN (or virtual private network), which will let you set your smartphone, laptop, or streaming device so that it thinks it's back in the UK.

NordVPN is currently the very best VPN you can get. It offers rapid server speeds, an easy-to-use interface, and is superb at unblocking your domestic services when traveling overseas. You can discover more in our dedicated NordVPN review or, if you're ready to sign up now, take advantage of the fact that you can cancel within the first 30 days and get a full refund thanks to the provider's money-back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

• Sign up for a VPN if you don't already have one.
• Install it on the device you're using to watch.
• Turn it on and set it to the location of your streaming service.
• Navigate to your streaming service and create an account if necessary.
• Enjoy the snooker.

Where to watch World Snooker Championship in the US

Unlike in the UK, you have to pay to watch this tournament in the US. It is being shown on the dedicated WST Play streaming platform. Prices are in GBP, with the monthly pass costing £7. That means you can watch every match of the 2026 World Snooker Championship for less than $10.

Where to watch World Snooker Championship in Canada

Just like south of the border, there are no domestic options for watching the 2026 World Snooker Championship in Canada. That means you'll need to subscribe to WST Play. The £7 a month fee works out to around CA$13.

---

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Business Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/8ajIMAt

Most NYC renters are struggling to afford housing. These maps show where it's worst.

Getty Images

When Massiel Lugo's parents moved to Jackson Heights, Queens, from the Dominican Republic nearly 50 years ago, the working-class neighborhood was an affordable place to raise a family.

Now that Lugo is in her early 30s and raising her own two kids in the same neighborhood, that's increasingly not the case. Though she took over her aunt's lease and the landlord hasn't raised the rent to market rate, Lugo's approximately $1,700 a month rent still adds up to more than 30% of her income, the threshold at which housing experts generally define housing as unaffordable.

Rents all around her have soared — data from StreetEasy indicates median rent in Jackson Heights rose about 26% between 2020 and 2025 — pushing more households into the rent-burdened category. Lugo worries she'll never be able to afford to move.

"At the end of the day, it's home, but it has changed so much," Lugo said.

A growing share of New Yorkers are struggling to afford life in one of the most expensive cities in the world — and the rising cost of housing is a big part of that. Once-affordable neighborhoods from Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to Jackson Heights, have been gentrified by higher-income newcomers fleeing costlier areas, prompting the question: Who can afford the concrete jungle anymore?

Where NYC rents are sky high

New York City's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, was elected on a pledge to make the city affordable for working-class New Yorkers again, including by freezing rents on the city's nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments and fast-tracking housing construction on city-owned land.

"As many working people know, it is increasingly impossible to find an affordable home in New York City, to build a dignified life without making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year," Mamdani said during a press conference.

More than half of New York City's tenants are rent-burdened, and nearly 30% of renters fork over more than half their income on housing each month, comparable to the share of cost-burdened renters in the country as a whole. The vast majority of rent-burdened New Yorkers make far less than the median income, but a substantial share of middle- and higher-income renters and homeowners are cost-burdened, too.

Analyzing data from the Census Bureau's 2019-2023 American Community Survey, we found that most New York City neighborhoods have a significant population of both renters and homeowners who are cost-burdened, with that share concentrated in the outer boroughs. Few parts of the city are in the clear.

"A high-income household that's paying 40% of income toward housing probably can still afford medication and afford food," said Emily Goldstein, director of organizing and advocacy at Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a coalition of housing groups.

Homebuilding isn't keeping up with the city

For decades, New York City has not built enough new homes, creating a severe shortage that's driven up rents and home prices. Between 2011 and 2023, the city added 895,000 new jobs, but only about 350,000 new homes. The city's housing vacancy rate fell to 1.4% in 2023 — the lowest since 1968 — and far below the widely considered healthy vacancy rate of 5 to 8%.

The housing that's been built in recent years is dominated by higher-end one- and two-bedroom apartments designed for higher earners. While the median renter household in the city makes about $70,000, the median rent citywide is about $4,400 per month, or $52,800 a year — significantly above the recommended 30% of income max spend on housing.

New Yorkers who made the city's average wage of around $88,600 in 2023 could afford less than 5% of rentals on the market that year, according to Streeteasy. Essential workers making typical wages could afford less than 1% of rentals.

We want to hear about how your city is trying to make more life affordable. Fill out this form if you have a story to share.

Family-sized apartments with two or three bedrooms are especially hard to come by. The cost crisis is pushing many out of the city, particularly families with young children and lower-income Black and Hispanic residents, according to a 2024 study by the Fiscal Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. New Yorkers who manage to find larger apartments tend to hang onto them — more than 40% of apartments with three or more bedrooms have been occupied by the same tenants for more than a decade.

Mamdani has made big promises on housing affordability, some of which would require state approval, including freezing rents on rent-stabilized apartments, which have gone up between 2.75% and 3.25% for one-year leases over the last couple years. His campaign also promised that the city government would build 200,000 permanently affordable housing units over 10 years.

Those moves are not without their critics — landlords who own rent-stabilized units are worried about keeping up with their own bills, and building new housing is notoriously difficult in a city where many stakeholders have veto points.

"There's no question that the majority of New Yorkers are struggling with housing costs, and that, especially in the last election, we saw a really clear mandate that voters want the government to do everything in their power to address the cost of living and affordability," said Annemarie Gray, the executive director of Open New York, a nonprofit group that supports housing development, who's also advised Mamdani's team.

Gray said the city needs to add about 500,000 new homes — market-rate and affordable — over the next decade to bring down housing costs. In late 2024, the city enacted a sweeping zoning reform package, known as "City of Yes," designed to pave the way for 80,000 new homes across the city over 15 years. Gray called the potential impact of those reforms "a drop in the bucket."

"There are not nearly enough types of housing of different sizes, of different scales, that are meeting different income levels," Gray said.

The real estate industry is pushing for more subsidies for new housing, continued zoning reforms, and fewer regulations that slow down construction. The Real Estate Board of New York, an industry lobbying and advocacy group, released a report in December that concluded it takes, on average, 3.4 years to build a new apartment building or four years if it's in Manhattan.

"We must strengthen existing financing tools to promote new construction, expand development opportunities through zoning, and streamline the permitting process," said Basha Gerhards, REBNY's executive vice president of public policy.

When affordable housing isn't really affordable

Much of the subsidized affordable housing that's been built in recent years — largely by private developers with government incentives — isn't affordable enough for many lower-income, rent-burdened New Yorkers.

Freezing rents for stabilized units, which are disproportionately home to lower-income New Yorkers, would prevent some New Yorkers from being forced out of their homes because they can't afford rent, advocates say. "At an individual level, freezing rents is actually an eviction prevention approach," Goldstein said.

Lugo wouldn't directly benefit from a rent freeze since her apartment isn't rent-stabilized. She dreams of moving to Bayside, a wealthier, more suburban part of Queens, but housing and transportation costs out there would be even higher. She doesn't think she can find a better deal on any similarly sized apartment in a comparable neighborhood in the city.

For now, she's sticking it out. "I know I am very fortunate with the apartment that I have," she said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/ExoZh4S