From the March issue: In the past year, New York City renters have come to expect a bevy of incentives, like months of free rent, landlord-paid brokers’ fees, and even — in the case of boutique luxury rental 436 West 20th Street — a butler. Could these perks be disappearing? In recent weeks, brokers have reported that landlords are doing away with concessions, and even increasing rents. “As their vacancies begin to drop, landlords around Manhattan are beginning to test rent increases,” noted Daniel Baum, CEO of the Real Estate Group New York, in a January market report. “Some of the major players, and even a few small outfits, have begun to remove concessions and bump up prices … around $100 to $200 per unit.” [more]

The Manhattan rental market’s usual summer frenzy is absent this year,
according to the July rental market report from the Real Estate Group
New York. Rents have stayed flat or dropped this month compared to June and are
below 2008 levels. Vacancies have also increased between the two
months. The steepest year-over-year drops came in doorman one-bedroom
units, which saw rents fall an average of 10.34 percent, to $3,276 from
$3,654, and non-doorman two-bedrooms, where rents dropped an average of
9.12 percent, to $3,590 from $3,950. The greatest neighborhood-specific
decline was seen in non-doorman studios in Midtown, where rents have
fallen 15.34 percent year-over-year. TRD more

Source: TREGNY

[more]

In keeping with seasonal trends, rental demand in Manhattan has
increased week-over-week since the beginning of April and since last
year, according to a May rental market report from the Real Estate
Group New York. Rental deals increased 33 percent this April compared
to April of 2008. But rents are still down significantly from their
2007 numbers, the report said. “While we have seen some owners realize the increase in demand and
begin to test the market, we are concerned that, as what happened last
summer, owners that are too aggressive to raise prices or slash
incentives will find themselves holding excess inventory going into the
fall,” Daniel Baum, COO of the Real Estate Group, said in the report. TRD [more]