The city’s rent board could allow the landlords who own roughly 1 million regulated apartments to hike rents by nearly 16% over the coming year, according to preliminary figures released Thursday.

The eye-popping potential 15.75% increase for a two-year lease, and 8.25% rent rise for a one-year lease, was outlined as a potential worst-case 2024 scenario in a report issued by the mayor-controlled Rent Guidelines Board.

The figures are driven by the dramatic spurt of inflation last year as the average cost of running a building jumped by 8.1%, according to the report.

The biggest culprit was the 19.9% increase in the cost of fuel, often used for heating or cooking.

The analysis’ best-case scenario would also lead to 2024 rent hikes of 6.6% and 5.3% for two-year and one-year leases, respectively.

The nine-person board is not bound by the recommended numbers in the staff reports, and could adopt higher or lower rent hikes.

Last year, for example, the initial recommended increases for one-year leases were 2.7%-4.5%, while the staff report recommended hikes of 4.3%-9% for two-year leases. Ultimately, the board backed a rise of 3.25% on one-year leases, and 5% for two-year leases.

Progressive activists from the Working Families Party and City Council lawmakers were quick to pressure Mayor Eric Adams and his appointees to the board to discard the findings and opt for a lower package of rent hikes.

“The Rent Guidelines Board should be ashamed. How out of touch can you be to suggest, in this time of economic uncertainty, that working-class tenants should endure a 16% rent hike,” tweeted Councilwoman Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn). “@NYCMayor – stop raising the rent.”

Press Secretary Fabien Levy quickly fired back.

“No recommended or adopted increase has ever come close to this number, and this year will be no different,” he wrote. “Any group suggesting otherwise is irresponsibly fearmongering and doing a disservice to the working New Yorkers this administration is fighting for every day.”