Fewer than 9,000 homeowners to pay NYC pied-à-terre tax as City Hall reviews exemption requests

Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on Oct 14, 2026

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NEW YORK — Fewer than 9,000 New York City homeowners will be subject to the pied-à-terre surcharge on pricey second homes as the city continues to sift through applications for exemption from the tax, City Hall numbers show.

The number is lower than the 13,000 homeowners initially estimated by the state, but city officials said they were confident that, no matter how many exemptions are granted, the tax will generate the anticipated revenue. The state has said the tax will net the city $500 million annually.

With the deadline for exemption applications closed earlier this week, roughly 62% of applications to the city’s Department of Finance for exemptions to the pied-à-terre tax had been granted as of Wednesday.

A total of about 11,000 people applied, with about 6,800 exemptions granted so far, according to City Hall. Around 3,800 applications have yet to be processed.

All told, that means that fewer than an estimated 9,000 homeowners will be subject to the tax, though the number could drop lower as the city combs through the last applications. Homeowners could also challenge their eligibility for the surcharge with an appeal to the city’s Tax Commission.

Bills are expected to go out in November, with payments due at the start of 2027.

The annual surcharge applies to single family homes with an assessed value of $5 million or more and co-ops and condos assessed at $1 million or more, with the threshold for condos increasing in years to come as the city revamps how it assesses them. Homeowners who can show they primarily live at that property, or have a tenant or family member who does, can win an exemption from the surcharge.

The actual amount homeowners will have to pay ranges from $40,000 on the lowest end to hundreds of thousands, or even millions, for the most expensive pieds-a-terre.

As the city presses on with the implementation of the tax, multiple lawsuits against both the city’s rollout and the tax itself are also playing out in court.

A group of New York City homeowners, two of whom are family members of Staten Island Councilmember Frank Morano, sued the city over the rollout in August, arguing the city unjustly put the responsibility on property owners to prove they live in the five boroughs full-time.

After a state judge ruled in that case last month that the city’s notifications to homeowners that they might be subject to the tax were unlawful, the city filed an appeal, allowing them to continue on with the rollout of the tax by at least temporarily stopping the judge’s order from taking effect.

And two other lawsuits were filed against the state last month challenging the legality of the tax itself. Those suits, which were filed in Suffolk County, argue the tax discriminates against property owners who already contribute toward public services they rarely use.

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