Every year, a battle brews between tenants of rent-stabilized apartments and their landlords.

A new report by the Rent Guidelines Board shows revenue after operating costs for landlords increased roughly 12% across the city. That’s an increase of about 2% from the previous year.

Though, accounting for inflation, that number drops to 8%.

“Rent-stabilized buildings, especially the 1974 ones, the older ones, in the outer boroughs, think the walkups, think older elevators, those buildings are in real trouble. But the problem is, the data is piled in with these newer rent-stabilized buildings,” Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association, said.

The group represents a coalition of property owners and managers.

Burgos says a closer look at the data shows a disparity in profits between core-Manhattan, which is defined as below 96th Street, and the rest of the city.

“The reality for us is, it’s a tale of two cities,” Burgos said.

Revenue profit for landlords rose across the boroughs:

• Core Manhattan +23.1%
• Non-core Manhattan +10.7%
• Queens +11.4%
• Brooklyn +10.1%
• The Bronx +0.8%

Staten Island, though, fell nearly 5.8%.

“The buildings that are in distress, especially in the outer boroughs, certainly need an increase because they are decaying. We’re seeing buildings fall into foreclosure, into bankruptcy, and without any assistance from the RGB, these buildings may not be there,” Burgos said.

The number of distressed buildings, though, are down by 0.5% from the previous year.

“They’re still making money. They just didn’t increase their revenue,” Andrea Shapiro, director of Advocacy and Programs, said.

The tenant advocate says the report is not a surprise.

“This is year after year of rental increases. Under Mayor Adams, the board has raised rents a cumulative amount of 9%. That’s a lot of money that landlords have been getting. And tenants aren’t getting those increases with their wages,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro says there needs to be a rent freeze.

“Tenants actually need rents lowered, but freezing the rent would actually level things out between tenants and landlords,” Shapiro said.

The one thing both sides can agree on is the system needs to be reformed to work for landlords and tenants.

A series of public hearings will be held by the Rent Guidelines Board before making a decision on whether to increase rents.

Any changes would apply to leases beginning Oct. 1 and after.