Section 27. Limitations

No company shall:
    1. Acquire any real property or interest therein unless it shall first
  have  obtained  from  the commissioner or the supervising agency, as the
  case may be,  a  certificate  that  such  acquisition  is  necessary  or
  convenient for the public purpose defined in this article.
    2.  Pay  interest upon its income debentures at a rate higher than six
  per centum per annum except as otherwise provided in this article.
    3. Issue its stock, income debentures and bonds covering  any  project
  in an amount greater in the aggregate than the actual project cost.
    4.   Without   first  having  obtained  the  written  consent  of  the
  commissioner or the supervising agency, as the case may be:
    (a)  Construct,  reconstruct,  rehabilitate,  improve  or  alter   any
  project, or enter into any contract therefor.
    (b)  Sell,  transfer  or assign any real property, except that no such
  consent shall  be  necessary  in  any  sale  in  foreclosure  as  herein
  provided.
    (c)  Except  as otherwise provided in this article, encumber, lease or
  rent all or any part of its real property.
    (d) Enter into contracts for the operation of the project.
    (e) Make a guaranty of payment.
    (f) Voluntarily dissolve.
    (g) Enter into contracts for the payment of salaries  to  officers  or
  employees.
    5. Pay interest on its mortgage indebtedness at a rate higher than six
  per  centum per annum, or at such higher rates as may be approved by the
  commissioner, or the supervising agency, as the case may be, but  in  no
  event  shall any such rate exceed the rate of interest prescribed by the
  banking board pursuant to section fourteen-a of the banking law  or,  in
  the  case  of a mortgage loan insured or held by the federal government,
  the rate approved by the federal government; provided, however, that  in
  the case of a company carrying out a state urban development corporation
  project  or  in  the  case  of an instrument or instruments securing the
  residual indebtedness of a company, which indebtedness is secured  by  a
  mortgage  on  the real property of a project, such rate shall not exceed
  the rate of interest prescribed by the banking board pursuant to section
  fourteen-a of the banking law or nine per centum per annum, whichever is
  the higher; and further provided,  however,  that,  in  the  case  of  a
  company  that is a mortgagor under a mortgage assigned to or acquired by
  the  New  York  city  housing  development   corporation   pursuant   to
  subdivision twenty-one of section six hundred fifty-four of this chapter
  and  whose  project  is  aided by a subsidy from the federal government,
  such rate shall be the rate of  interest  approved  by  the  supervising
  agency.    Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the
  rate of interest that a company shall have the  power  to  pay  on  that
  portion  of  its  mortgage indebtedness attributable to an investment or
  participation in a loan made pursuant  to  subdivision  one  of  section
  fifteen  by  an  organization  or  entity mentioned in such subdivision,
  shall be the rate of  interest  approved  by  the  commissioner  or  the
  supervising agency, as the case may be.
    6.  Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision five of this section
  twenty-seven, a company, which has obtained a mortgage loan from the New
  York city housing development corporation or the New York state  housing
  finance  agency  and where it is necessary for additional bonds or notes
  to be issued by the New York city housing development corporation or the
  New York state housing finance agency (i) in order to  obtain  funds  to
  fulfill the mortgage loan commitment to such company, as such commitment
  may  be  amended  or (ii) to refund or renew notes issued in fulfillment
  thereof, for a project partially or temporarily  financed  by  bonds  or

  notes  issued,  in  the  case  of  the New York city housing development
  corporation,  prior  to  the  first  day  of  August,  nineteen  hundred
  seventy-five,  and  in  the  case  of the New York state housing finance
  agency,  prior  to  the  thirty-first  day of December, nineteen hundred
  seventy-five ,  may  pay  interest  on  that  portion  of  its  mortgage
  indebtedness,  the  funds  for  which were obtained by the New York city
  housing development corporation or the New York  state  housing  finance
  agency  through  the  issuance  of such additional or refunding bonds or
  notes, at a rate not in excess of the cost of financing incurred by  the
  New  York  city  housing  development  corporation or the New York state
  housing finance agency, as the case may be, to issue such additional  or
  refunding  bonds  or  notes, provided that, with respect to the New York
  city housing development corporation, such corporation  determines  that
  such  cost  of  financing  is  reasonable  and  the  commissioner or the
  supervising agency, as the case may  be,  shall  approve  such  cost  of
  financing.