New Delhi, July 29 -- the database was designed, in part, to support Mayor Zohran Mamdani's push to enforce and expand the city's pied-a-terre tax, a levy on secondary residences owned by people who do not claim New York City as their primary home.

The New York City Department of Finance launched the database as a publicly accessible tool allowing residents and researchers to search property ownership records across the city's residential inventory. The DOF said the disclosure was "required by state law," a position that places the release within existing legal frameworks rather than as a new policy choice by the Mamdani administration. Mamdani's office did not respond to questions about the database.

The political context surrounding t...