Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s tax plan targets NYC’s wealthy neighborhoods—as family’s history of expensive real estate revealed

Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has built his platform around sweeping housing reforms, including rent freezes, property tax restructuring, and what he describes as redistributing resources from “richer and whiter neighborhoods” to lower-income communities.

However, according to the New York Post, he could now face criticism about his own family’s wealth as his mother, Mira Nair, is a filmmaker and Columbia professor who once owned a now-$2 million loft in Manhattan’s West Chelsea neighborhood.

She bought the unit at 420 W. 25th St. for $1.375 million in 2008, according to property records obtained by the outlet. The unit, which features 12-foot ceilings, a Schiffini-designed kitchen, and a “luxurious en-suite bath with a spacious double glass shower,” sold in 2019 for $1.45 million, but is now in the ballpark of $1.9 million.

Mamdani was beginning his political career when Nair owned the loft, meanwhile, his platform includes a proposal to “shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.”

Mamdani represents Astoria but lives in a rent-stabilized one-bedroom apartment in Queens. Similar housing costs around $2,500 per month. He also owns a 4-acre plot of land in Uganda, which is valued at $150,000 and $250,000, the outlet reported, citing an ethics financial disclosure.

Mamdani has been a vocal advocate for progressive housing policy, calling for rent freezes as well as and reforms to the property tax system, which he argues unfairly favors wealthy neighborhoods. After winning the Democratic primary in June, the socialist is going into the November general election as the frontrunner in the deep blue city of New York. Mamdani is challenging incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is seeking re-election as an independent after leaving the Democrat party.