Many reasons occasioned by the Housing Stability and Tenant Prevention Act disincentivized property owners from improving existing buildings because either (a) they could not greatly increase rents after a rent-regulated tenant vacated a unit, or (b) they could not obtain approved rent increases by improving the major components of a building.

The only way to create a free-market building, which would enable a landlord to pay its mortgage and other expenses, was to demolish the existing building and build a new one.