More than 500,000 tenants face significant rent hikes because soaring fuel prices have propelled landlords’ operating costs to their highest level since 1996.
Sources said the Rent Guidelines Board will release figures today showing that landlords’ costs jumped 7.8 percent last year, largely because fuel prices zoomed 54 percent while real-estate taxes rose 5.2 percent.
Fuel and tax costs are key components in a complicated formula used to set increases for 900,000 rent-stabilized apartments. Sixty percent of the leases come due this year.
Last year, the formula, known as the Percentage Increase in Operating Costs (PIOC) came in at just three-tenths of 1 percent.
That led to increases of 2 percent for one-year leases and 4 percent for two-year renewals.
But the PIOC reached 6 percent in 1996, and tenants were hit with hikes of 5 and 7 percent.
With a 7.8 percent PIOC, landlord representatives told The Post they’ll be asking for commensurate rent increases.
“Certainly, we’re going to be looking at even higher percentages [than in 1996],” said Jack Freund, executive vice president of the Rent Stabilization Association.
Politics will eventually figure into the mix, since City Hall routinely reviews the final hikes before they’re announced on June 22.