Rents Falling in Manhattan a Lot, Brooklyn Not So Much

Residential rents in Manhattan fell pretty much across the board last year, and incentives like a month’s free rent are becoming increasingly common. The head of Halstead’s rental division estimates that prices are down between 10 and 15 percent from the 2007 peak though the article’s author digs up “anecdotal evidence” that the number is more like 20 percent. One by-product of the weaker market is that many more landlords are now willing to pay a broker’s fee to land a tenant. In the past, slowing sales has often meant a tighter rental market, but that’s not always the case: People assume when sale slows down, rental will pick up, but that depends on what the source of this is, said Gregory J. Heym, the chief economist at Terra Holdings, which owns Halstead and Brown Harris Stevens. When you’re losing jobs, the rental market is also going to suffer. Echoing what we’ve been hearing recently, the rental market in Brooklyn has not softened as much. We’re not renting as fast as we would have expected, said Patrick McGrath, whose firm recently bought and started renting out The Standish in Brooklyn Heights. We’ve had to provide concessions — a free month rent, we pay the broker fee. But rents are around where we expected them to be. We’re in the ballpark.
A Month Free? Rents Are Falling Fast [NY Times]
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