Most New Yorkers have not heard about this yet. Buried in the FY 2026 New York State Budget that Governor Hochul signed in May 2025 is a law that bars Wall Street style institutional investors from bidding on your house for the first 90 days it is on the market. It only covers the big players, the penalty is steep, and it quietly changes the math for anyone buying or selling a 1- or 2-family home in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and across the state. Here is exactly how it works.
What is New York’s 90-day institutional investor home buying ban?
The FY 2026 New York State Budget, signed by Governor Hochul in May 2025, bars institutional investors from making an offer on any 1- or 2-family home in New York State until that home has been on the open market for 90 days. The covered entities are those that own 10 or more homes and manage $30 million or more in assets. The penalty for violating the law runs up to $250,000 per offense.
Who exactly does the new law cover?
Only large institutional players. An entity must meet both conditions, owning 10 or more homes AND managing $30 million or more in assets, to be prohibited from submitting a purchase offer during the first 90 days a 1- or 2-family home is listed. Individual investors, small landlords, and regular owner-occupant buyers are not covered and can bid from day one. After the 90-day window passes, institutional buyers can submit offers like anyone else.
How does the 90-day ban help home sellers in NYC?
Institutional buyers used to flood listings with day-one offers that looked clean and fast but were structured below true market value, because their fund returns require a discount. Sellers who accepted those offers often left real money on the table. Under the new law, your first 90 days has a buyer pool of retail buyers, individual investors, and small landlords who pay fair market value, frequently with bidding-war dynamics. That difference is money that stays in your pocket.
How does the law help regular buyers in Staten Island and Brooklyn?
Owner-occupant buyers in markets like Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Queens routinely lost homes because they could not match the speed and certainty of institutional all-cash offers. The 90-day window gives owner-occupants a fair shot at 1- and 2-family homes before institutional capital can compete, which is exactly the buyer pool these neighborhoods were built for.
What should a seller do to take advantage of the 90-day window?
Treat the window as a structural advantage and maximize retail value inside it. Work with a broker who can price strategically, market professionally, and manage competitive offers so the home sells for the most the open market will pay. Do not rush into an institutional offer after day 90 if the retail market is still active. The whole point of the window is to capture full value before institutional discounting re-enters the picture.
Watch the full breakdown
This is an episode of Daily Tesla News, Joseph Ranola’s daily breakdown of the numbers and moves shaping Staten Island, Brooklyn, and NYC real estate.
Browse all Daily Tesla News episodes and try the AI chatbot that knows every episode. Thinking about selling a 1- or 2-family home and want to maximize the 90-day window? Call or text Joseph at 917-905-2541.
Nothing here is legal or investment advice. Talk to a real estate attorney about how this law applies to your specific transaction.
