New York City Luxury Rental Blog Archives for November 2011

The Mad Dash for Manhattan Rentals

Manhattan renters sprinting for rentals

The journey towards securing an apartment for rent is often chaotic, unpredictable and needlessly time consuming. The myriad of decisions that you will have to make range from choosing the type of apartment, broker or no broker, access to neighborhood amenities, etc. In short, the process can often be strenuous and stress-inducing for many Manhattan renters. And when you consider the fact that many of the more desirable rentals do not appear on the market until mere weeks before an anticipated move-in date (that is, if they appear on the market at all), the metaphorical race to arrive at a dream apartment for rent in Manhattan is one more suited for the seasoned sprinters than the recreational joggers.

Rental Market Warming Up for Winter

That wonderful layer of leaves piled on the sidewalks is so charming that it's easy to forget what comes next. We might not want to think about it, but after the leaves fall, so do renter’s moving ambitions--it seems that nothing could possibly be worse than packing a U-Haul in the snow. But for NYC dwellers, there are some strong reasons to go searching during the winter months of November to February, when the Manhattan real-estate market slows down and is on the cusp of change. From couples to discretionary movers to higher-earning business professionals, now is the opportunity for Manhattanites to shop for NYC rentals.

More Rentals Rising West of Midtown West

Far West Side ManhattanThe words Manhattan and real estate development have long been synonymous, so it should come as no surprise when The Real Deal recently announced that the Gotham Organization would be taking on one of the largest new construction projects in Manhattan yet. The Gotham Organization project is expected to cost over $520 million and consists of four separate buildings spanning an entire Manhattan city block at 550 West 45th Street between 10th and 11th Avenue. Out of the 1,238 expected units for rent, close to 600 of them will be constructed with low-, moderate- and middle-income New Yorkers in mind.

Green Retrofitted Buildings on the Rise in NYC

For NYC dwellers on the hunt for an apartment, green residences might seem more of a nicety than a necessity. But by 2030 high-rise city real estate is going to get a whole lot greener, and hopefully a whole lot more affordable. A recent study has found that simple energy-conserving technology can save landlords bundles, and the statistics endorse New York City’s continued push for citywide environmental initiatives. To keep the city’s green-o-meter rising, new laws mandate many large buildings keep a public tab on their energy efficiency. The desired outcome is green new developments and retrofitted buildings. But what will the impact of all this paper shuffling be for renters, and does this look like a greener NYC or a pipe dream?

Worries Beset the Manhattan Rental Market

The rise of the Manhattan luxury rental market may have peakedMuch has been made of the consistent rise in Manhattan rents in the face of adversity. In the midst of economic woes, the Manhattan luxury real estate world has prided itself on the steady rise of rental prices: the average monthly rent in Manhattan is up 8% from this time last year and is just $53 off the all-time market peak set in 2007. In spite of this remarkable success, many real estate experts view this trend in luxury rentals in Manhattan as unsustainable. With the market slowdown of winter approaching, signs are beginning to point to rents either remaining stable or declining for the first time since 2009.

Fully-Furnished Rentals Getting More Attention than Ever

Fully-furnished luxury rentals in Manhattan are in high demandHow can a chain reaction of uncertainty lead to stability? Well, the undercurrent of anxiety in Manhattan real estate over the state of the economy, both at home and abroad, has badly hurt sales of luxury condominiums, but the rental market has flourished in turn; rental vacancies in New York City recently dropped below 1%. This phenomena is one of the most salient features of the Manhattan real estate market today and has already been well documented elsewhere on luxuryrentalsmanhattan.com, but now there’s a new twist to the story: expensive, fully-furnished luxury rentals are more popular than ever. Wealthy New Yorkers have revived the market for furnished rentals despite the fact that the monthly rent is usually double the cost of unfurnished luxury apartments. The causes of this Manhattan real estate trend are counterintuitive, but all of them bolster short-term investments, especially fully-furnished luxury rentals.

Single Moms Revitalize NYC Rental Market

Manhattan Luxury Apartments at Sunset

Catering to a city of renters, NYC real estate developers seem to design with the tech-savvy resident in mind. But as luxury Manhattan apartments get sleeker, perhaps the hottest amenities on the market aren’t wired at all—just childproof. Statistics from Property and Portfolio Research, a real-estate forecasting firm owned by CoStar, recently reported single moms were the largest group of new NYC renters from 2000 to 2010, comprising 30% of new-renters. But in addition to adding to the diversity of NYC renters, the wave of single-mother-residents revitalizing the NYC housing market scene has the potential to influence more family oriented features in a real-estate race where impersonating resort life has become the foremost objective.

Financial District Condos Converting into Rentals

When New Yorkers think of the Financial District, the last image that would ever come to mind is that of a residential neighborhood. After all, the Financial District wouldn’t be called such if it was populated with residential buildings rather than business headquarters and offices. Yet, that is exactly what many Manhattan residential developers have envisioned in the recent years. In an attempt to revitalize the Financial District as a viable residential neighborhood in downtown Manhattan, many developers have converted what were once old office buildings into condos. The only problem is that nobody wanted to buy. But a buyer's loss is swiftly turning into renters' gains.