Scorecard: Manhattan landlords are dropping rents, offering more concessions

From the February issue: While prices in the Manhattan sales market are on the rise, the borough’s rental market appears to be headed in the opposite direction. Nearly 90,000 Manhattan rental listings saw a price drop in 2015, according to data from On-Line Residential. That is a 24 percent increase over the number of rentals with discounts in 2014.

Additionally, a report from brokerage Citi Habitats found that 14 percent of Manhattan rental deals in December included a landlord concession — the highest percent in the last year. That is creating issues for landlords and brokers.

“The vacancy rate is higher than it’s been in years,” said Citi Habitats agent Nathaniel Faust. “It’s been a challenge to get the same rents that we got in the last year or so.”

The Brooklyn rental market outlook is a bit more bullish. A report from MNS found that average rental prices in the borough saw modest increases in December year over year. The biggest change was for the average rent of two-bedrooms, which was up 2.5 percent.

Meanwhile, StreetEasy recently predicted that rents would rise 2.3 percent on average for Brooklyn this year, basically flat from the 2.4 percent rise seen in 2015.

Not everyone agreed with that, though.

Citing a glut of new development rental inventory, NY Casa Group agent Angelo Rodriguez said he expects to see a softening in rental prices in Brooklyn through the first six months of the year