No Public Managing
Agent Registry
Every other major condo state maintains a public registry of licensed property managers. New York does not. We built one anyway.
THE GAP
The invisible industry.
There are approximately 50-75 managing agent firms operating in New York City, collectively controlling thousands of residential buildings worth hundreds of billions of dollars in aggregate value. There is no public registry listing these firms, their portfolios, their officers, their complaint history, or their track record.
HPD's building registration system requires every multifamily building to register annually — but the registration names individual people, not firms. There is no "managing agent" field. No corporate identifier. No way to search "which buildings does this firm manage?" in any city or state database.
THE REGISTRY WE BUILT
4,447 buildings. 15 firms. $0.
We identified managing agent portfolios through pattern analysis of publicly available NYC housing registration records. Total cost: $0. Every claim is reproducible from free NYC Open Data.
| Firm | Buildings |
|---|---|
| FirstService Residential | 1,122 |
| Douglas Elliman PM | 607 |
| AKAM Associates | 543 |
| + 12 more firms | |
THE FIX
Two solutions. Both straightforward.
Interim (zero cost): HPD adds one field — managing agent firm name — to the annual registration form. Export via NYC Open Data. Done.
Full fix: Enact a statewide Community Association Manager licensing statute. Florida did it in 1987. California, Nevada, Illinois, Virginia, Georgia, and Connecticut followed. New York has more condos and co-ops than any of those states.