Apartment rentals New York with Concessions

Concessions Decline Along With Rents in Manhattan

In Manhattan's tight rental market, landlords are offering fewer concessions than before.

Here’s something that should put a smile on the faces of apartment hunters in New York City. Rental reports from Douglas Elliman and Citi Habitats for the month of December say that average rents for apartments in Manhattan have once again decreased, with the average rent coming to just $3,284 a month, an appreciable dip from the whopping average rent of $3,461 that was seen in August. With tight credit conditions forcing many New Yorkers to abandon plans for buying a home, rentals continue to be very much in demand, resulting in a very tight market.

Remember The Good Times: Concessions Seemingly On The Way Out In 2011

We talk about the renter's market here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog the way that older men in bars talk about their high school football days, but we do so for a reason -- those were good times to be in the market for Manhattan rental apartments. Not only were rents down -- or, at the very least, flat -- but concessions abounded from the bottom of the market to the top. As the renter's market has receded during the NYC rental market's return to form, those concessions have become harder nad harder to find. They're still out there, of course -- there are plenty of no-fee rental listings in Manhattan and, oddly enough, concessions are still available to find at new construction luxury rentals such as The Ohm and 808 Columbus Avenue -- but concessions have been harder and harder to come by in recent months, despite widespread hopes that there would be a concession bounce-back in the fall. Just-released fourth-quarter statistics make it plain -- the last few months have seen the number of concessions fall by more than half from where they were in January of 2010 and are roughly a third of what they were at the end of 2009. Good news for landlords, in short, but less so for those hunting for Manhattan rental apartments. Combine this with a bump in rents and a low vacancy rate, and it's hard to find a silver lining in all this. Luckily, it's out there.

Rise and Fall: Do Rising Vacancy Rates On Manhattan Rental Apartments Augur A Comeback For Concessions?

You know it's good news when Luxury Rentals Manhattan breaks out the popchampagne.jpg imagery, and so it is in this case. Of course, rising vacancy rates are not the sort of thing that landlords pop corks over -- the tighter the market for NYC apartment rentals is, the more they're able to get for said NYC apartment rentals. But with October rental stats showing an (expected, seasonal) rise in the New York apartment vacancy rate, things in the Manhattan real estate market seem to have turned in favor of renters, after months of running the other way. Again, this sort of thing pretty much always happens in autumn, which is why it's the most wonderful time of the year for Manhattan apartment hunters. But that doesn't mean renters shouldn't be celebrating this particular bit of seasonal good luck. While CitiHabitats' report on the October rental market indicated that rents fell one percent from September's averages, the real news here is the rising vacancy rate -- and how it could wind up making concessions on NYC apartments a lot less rare. Thus the popping corks. Read on for the nitty gritty.

Something Old At Someplace New: New Construction Luxury Rentals Prove Last Holdout For Rent Concessions In Manhattan Real Estate

It's a pretty common refrain here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog that the return of the Manhattan rental market to something like its old gangbusters status is a good thing. That's because, in a macro sense, it is. But it's also because we're working on talking ourselves into it. The renter's market of the great Manhattan rental market slump was tough on landlords and developers, but it was great news for those browsing NYC rental apartments, who suddenly found themselves faced with a wealth of no-fee rental listings and landlords seemingly eager to give away months of free rent and other other concessions. Now that the Manhattan rental market is healthier, the renter's market is generally a thing of the past -- a fondly remembered silver lining surrounding an ever-shrinking cloud, if you're a metaphor type, and a casualty of economic trends if you're more literally inclined. But, as we try to remind readers (and ourselves), there are still great deals to be found on Manhattan rental apartments. There are still plenty of no-fee rental listings out there, for instance, and there are also plenty of Manhattan luxury rentals offering concessions on leases. The surprising part, though, is the identity of those concession-granting Manhattan luxury rentals. From The Ohm -- a new construction luxury rental in Chelsea pictured near these words -- to a host of other new construction rental listings in various Manhattan neighborhoods, some of Manhattan's most concession-friendly rental listings happen to be at some of Manhattan's hottest new construction apartment buildings. No, really. More after the jump.

The Last Concession? Post Reports Concessions In Decline At New York City Rentals

We've been writing about the renter's market in Manhattan rentals here at Luxury Rentals Manhattan for months now, but much of what we've been writing about the renter's market has been about its imminent end. Is it here yet? How about now? Maybe while we were at lunch? The answer to those (incessant) questions remains more or less the same: the market for rental apartments in Manhattan is still tilted towards renters, but it appears to be in the midst of a return to the mean. Which in turn means, as the New York Post reports today, that it's increasingly tough for NYC dwellers to get the sort of concessions on Manhattan rentals that they routinely received during the heyday of the renter's market. Using Clinton luxury rental success story 505 West 37th as a test case, the Post's Katherine Dykstra reports that while concessions are down, the market is not totally back to its boom-era levels.