New York City Luxury Rental Blog Archives for October 2011

Manhattan’s Trendiest Neighborhood is Also the Priciest

Tribeca_Daytime_ViewRent hikes. A stale array of Manhattan apartment listings. That’s the rental market scene NYC-apartment-hunters stretching from Harlem to FiDi have been testifying to. The continuing drag in the new-development pipeline (a repercussion of the 2008 stock market crash) coupled with some of the lowest vacancy rates the city has ever seen have dispersed most incentives for landlords to keep rents low. But although rent is up across the board, where in the city is the priciest? The two neighborhoods that take the cake are among Manhattan’s most popular -- the gilded Bohemian paradise that is SoHo, and chic, strutting Tribeca, where trends are born.

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The Scarcity of NYC Multi-Bedroom Luxury Rentals

Multi-Bedroom luxury apartments are harder to come by, but many are still out thereLuxury rental apartments in NYC, as opposed to luxury apartments for sale, continue to be the first choice of many searching throughout the Manhattan real estate market. A variety of factors have contributed to this, including but not limited to: increased difficulty in securing outside financing; the still present aftershock of the housing crisis; and just all around lower personal income and savings. Perhaps this phenomenon can explain the recent shortage of multi-bedroom luxury rental apartments in Manhattan, a trend that crosses all neighborhoods and areas.

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Should Manhattan Renters Have Renters Insurance?

Manhattan Luxury Rentals - Renters Insurance

From earthquake aftershocks to hurricane-turned-tropical-storm Irene, New York City has seen its fair share of natural hazards in 2011. In a city filled to the brim with luxury rental apartments, many renters have a false sense of security and misconceptions about renters insurance. According to a 2010 survey, more than 70% of the 81 million Americans who rent either do not have renters insurance or even know that it exists. Given that the average American renter owns up to $30,000 in personal properties, a renter who finds himself or herself as an unfortunate victim of mother nature would potentially be paying for the bills all out of their own pockets.

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International Guarantors and NYC Luxury Real Estate

Luxury Manhattan Rentals - International StudentsWithin 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.

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Manhattan Apartments See Rents Increase... Again

Manhattan Apartment Rentals - Rents IncreaseThe wealth of Manhattan real estate comes with a wealth of Manhattan real estate reports. Reports from the most recent quarter showed activity in the market, but at slower rates than the previous quarter and last year, and with pricier trends.  So indeed, that chorus of renters' sighs heard around the city this past Friday came from a usual suspect: the rental market report.

Manhattan rental market reports show rents going up in the third quarter this year, while the number of new luxury Manhattan rentals continues to fall. They also indicate that NYC landlords are taking the glitter-out-of-the-envelope in terms of concessions. And as rent goes rises across the board, The New York Times reports that many tired Manhattan tenants with end-of-the-run leases have received stark demands for higher rent, and are consequently shopping around for more affordable options.

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The Fight to Preserve The Bowery

Luxury NY Rentals - Bowery Listings“The Bowery! The Bowery! They say such things and they do strange things,” began an 1891 song. But what was once known as Skid Row, full of vagrants and artists alike, has over the past few years continued on a path toward full gentrification. Much has changed from the days of towering bank headquarters and performances by Vaudevillian legends. Progress, to be sure, always brings about change. But while many of the residents of luxury rentals in the Bowery see innovation as being productive, they are also fighting to keep the flavor of this iconic neighborhood’s past intact.

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A New Market for Wealthy Renters Takes Hold

Luxury Manhattan Rentals - Real Estate TrendsNew 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.

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New Developments In Clinton... Or Is It Hell's Kitchen?

Painting of Hell's Kitchen in New York CitySince a renaming campaign that began in over 50 years ago, some things have officially come off the menu in Hell’s Kitchen—grit and squalor, gang bivouacs, dire poverty. In 1959, the Manhattan neighborhood stretching from 34th to 59th Street west of 8th Avenue attempted an image makeover when grisly gang violence took the life of two young boys and generated waves of negative media coverage. That year it was alternatively named Clinton—but not unanimously. 

Artists and residents in the community have argued name-politics since the beginning. Where HK has a plucky cachet, Clinton rolls of the tongue with glass sterility. Is the neighborhood a niche for Bohemians, or young urban professionals? Is graffiti art or blight? Are high-rises the future? Technical name grumbling still fills the air, but any stroll through the warehouse-y neighborhood will reveal a juxtaposition of both worlds.

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