New York City's rent-freeze policy will be tested in court, the Chosun Ilbo reported, after a judge agreed to hear arguments that the decision-making process was procedurally flawed.

The freeze was pursued to ease the burden of soaring housing costs, capping permitted increases on rent-regulated units for a set period.

Landlords argue that freezing rents while management costs, taxes and insurance rise makes maintenance and repair unaffordable, and could translate into safety problems in aging buildings.

Tenants counter that rents have risen far faster than wages, pushing lower-income households out of the city, and that housing stability is the foundation of the urban economy.

Housing costs are a shared problem across major world cities. How each combines the strength of regulation with policies to expand supply produces different answers.

Rents are a sensitive matter in New York's Chinese neighborhoods too, where rising commercial rents bear directly on whether long-established restaurants and shops survive.