Hot market pushing potential condo buyers toward luxe rentals

Renting Allen House pays off for Sitt's Thor Equities

From left: Joe Sitt and Allen House at 201 East 71st Street on the Upper East Side
From left: Joe Sitt and Allen House at 201 East 71st Street on the Upper East Side

It seems like every week a new price record is broken in the top-end condo market. But some potential buyers are choosing to wait it out and pay monthly for condo-like pads at deluxe rental buildings like Thor Equities’ Allen House.

Thor’s Joe Sitt took a gamble when he chose not to condo-convert Allen House, at 201 East 71st Street on the Upper East side. Sitt bought the building for $52 million in 2013. After refurbishing the units, he offered them for rent, with prices ranging for $3,500 to $20,000 a month.

“It’s certainly unusual,” Karen Stone of Town Resident told the New York Daily News. “I see very few new rentals happening anywhere in Manhattan these days.”

And the bet seems to paying off.

“The demand for the product has been amazing,” Stone said. “A lot of people are renting while they wait for the market to soften a little bit.” [NYDN]Ariel Stulberg

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