Google billionaire Sergey Brin exits NYC real estate as landlords suffer from rent controls, explosive costs: report

Google billionaire Sergey Brin is reportedly among the many New York City landlords fearing more hurt from capitalism-hating Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze — seemingly dumping his stake in a real-estate fund for pennies on the dollar.Amphitheatre LLC, an investment firm affiliated with Brin, last year sold shares in a New York real estate fund that holds nearly 5,900 units back to its manager, A&E Real Estate, according to documents filed in December and earlier reported by Bloomberg.It is unclear how much Brin invested with A&E — which Mamdani called out earlier this year — or how much the group paid to buy it back, though the gross value of his stake in the properties was roughly $79 million, according to records.A&E confirmed it bought out one of its long-term investors, though it did not specifically name Brin – telling The Post the seller “was willing to accept six cents on the dollar on their original equity investment to divest itself from the New York City multifamily sector.”Brin – whose worth of $265.7 billion, according to Forbes, makes him the world’s third-richest person – seemingly offloaded his ties to NYC real estate at a steep loss after Mamdani clinched election victory with promises of a rent freeze.“The simple and deeply troubling fact for renters is that institutional capital – both equity investors and lenders – are fleeing New York City’s rent stabilized apartment sector,” an A&E spokesperson told The Post.“They understand New York is in a doom loop created in large part by the 2019 Albany rent laws, which handcuff owners’ ability to recoup costs for necessary capital repairs and improvements, coupled with rapidly rising operating expenses and a hostile political establishment determined to freeze the rents no matter the real-life implications for residents,” the spokesperson added.“Absent changes, the city’s working class housing stock will continue to steadily decline.”The city’...