Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to ditch rent-stabilized Queens apartment — and move into Gracie Mansion

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani revealed Monday he will ditch his rent-stabilized Queens apartment and move to Gracie Mansion with his wife, Rama Duwaji, after his inauguration.

The Democratic socialist, who has been living in a $2,300 one-bedroom pad in Astoria, said the decision was ultimately down to his family’s safety.

“My wife Rama and I have made the decision to move into Gracie Mansion in January,” he said in a statement.

“This decision came down to our family’s safety and the importance of dedicating all of my focus on enacting the affordability agenda New Yorkers voted for.”

Mamdani, whose campaign leaned heavily on rent freezes for New Yorkers, has faced widespread criticism for living in his dirt-cheap digs for years – despite his six-figure salary as a Queens assemblyman.

Until now, the socialist had been quiet on whether he would relocate to the mayor’s official residence located on the Upper East Side in the wake of his election win.

“My priority, always, is serving the people who call this city home. I will be a mayor for the line cooks on Steinway, for the children swinging at Dutch Kills Playground, for the bus riders waiting for the Q101,” he said.

“While I may no longer live in Astoria, Astoria will always live inside me and the work I do.”

Mamdani’s rent-stabilized apartment was a source of contention during the mayoral campaign as his rivals repeatedly zeroed in on his affordable digs.

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, had accused Mamdani of abusing the rent-regulated system because he’s from a wealthy family and shouldn’t have been occupying an apartment that could have gone to someone less well-off.

The socialist — who is the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani — has long claimed he didn’t even know the apartment was rent-stabilized when he first moved in before he was elected to the state Assembly in 2020.

His campaign, too, argued that Mamdani had moved into the apartment when he was making $47,000.

Still, the incoming mayor said he and his wife would miss a slew of things about their home.

“Cooking dinner side by side in our kitchen, sharing a sleepy elevator ride with our neighbors in the evening, hearing music and laughter vibrate through the walls of the apartment,” Mamdani said.

“To Astoria: thank you for showing us the best of New York City. We have called this neighborhood home as our city weathered a devastating pandemic, cruel attacks on immigrants, and years of an affordability crisis,” he continued.

“Time and again, this community has shown up for one another. We will miss it all — the endless Adeni chai, the spirited conversations in Spanish, Arabic and every language in between, the aromas of seafood and shawarma drifting down the block.”