Apartment rentals New York with Luxury Manhattan Apartments

Within NYC luxury real estate, it is often quite difficult as an international student to find a luxury rental apartment. It can be hard for most students, as well as many others without a long work history or established credit, to obtain a luxury apartment lease. But for international students searching through NYC luxury real estate listings, it can be even more of an ordeal, simply because they do not have the same opportunity to use a guarantor. Susan Tsang, for example, is a PhD student in biology who was born in Hong Kong. When she moved to NYC to attend school, she did not have any U.S. employment history, and therefore was in a position where she needed a co-signer. However, because her parents still lived in Hong Kong, she was confronted with a number of challenges, as dozens of landlords refused to allow for international guarantors. She was eventually able to find a studio in Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood, but not before she was forced to deal with the roadblocks a great many foreigners have had to circumnavigate.

New luxury rental buildings built in the past few years have changed the dynamic between buying and renting in Manhattan, perhaps permanently. A trend has emerged among Manhattan elites: a wave of wealthy renters are leasing properties all over the borough. This shift in demand has created a niche market for ultra-luxury apartments that didn’t exist before, at least not nearly to this extent. Moreover, the stigma attached to renting a luxury apartment in Manhattan as a significant downgrade in social status is rapidly disappearing. This Old New York mentality has given way to the new attitude that there is no substantive difference between the two, whether it be in quality of living or in social standing. This shift is directly attributable to the high-quality of new construction in Manhattan, but it extends to all Manhattan real estate as well. The proof is in the listings.

The East River Greenway project, one of the newest attempts to provide further green areas within Manhattan’s East Side, and more specifically the Midtown East neighborhood, is continuing to grow in popularity. A recent poll, taken by the aptly named organization Friends of the East River Greenway reported that 73 percent of those living in the East Side support this new project, suggesting that it is getting ever closer to coming to fruition. Even with its expensive price-tag, this attempt to beautify one of NYC’s most historic areas is one that promises to make the East Side ever more popular as a place to rent luxury apartments.

Once a part of a larger, broader Lower East Side, the East Village is one of New York City’s trendiest neighborhoods. Adhering to Manhattan’s street grid unlike its former namesake, the East Village has a vibrant student, immigrant, and artist population, and demand in the area has skyrocketed as a result of being the place to be in Downtown Manhattan. Now, to the chagrin of basically everybody but landlords, rents might increase yet again, but for a completely different reason: the Landmarks Preservation Commission has its sights on the East Village.

As July nears its end, New Yorkers are passing the halfway mark of a sunny, sweltering summer. With dizzying heat waves crossing the country and sending miserable New Yorkers a-scramble for sunblock and the nearest air conditioner, a bit of (semi-)good news would not be amiss. So we at Luxury Rentals Manhattan are happy to report that -- once again -- our past predictions for the summer have come to fruition, despite our recently tempered views. The summer Manhattan rental season has continued to grow in strength according to July’s rental market report, with rents climbing across the board. And while only last month we touted the price benefits of non-doorman buildings, July sings quite a different tune. The prices of doorman and non-doorman buildings are slowly drawing even as the market buffs up and rents rise, closing June’s price gap between the two types of rentals.