As landlords worry about rising unemployment numbers and another
potentially slow fall and winter rental market, many are offering
tenants rent reductions they did not ask for. A tenant at the Related
Companies’ Ventura, on East 86th Street, opened his lease renewal to
find that the landlord had reduced his rent to $3,600 per month from
$3,900. A real estate broker who also lives on the Upper East Side said
her landlord offered her an unsolicited 20 percent rent reduction. But
Fritz Frigan, executive director of sales and leasing at Halstead
Property, said he is seeing fewer rent reductions and incentives being
offered by landlords now than in the first quarter of this year. [more]