From the October issue: With the combination of high building vacancy rates and the down
market, Roberto Gonzalez, an agent at Bond New York, expected to see a
wave of tenants erecting walls and “cramming” into apartments to save
rent money. But the expected flood of people seeking to pile into shares hasn’t
really arrived, he said. “Everything in my gut tells me there should be
tons of people sharing, but there are actually fewer,” said Gonzalez,
who has rentals in Tribeca, the East Village and Williamsburg. Brokers who deal with areas of Manhattan where there are a high
percentage of shares — such as the Financial District, Murray Hill and
Union Square — said that while landlords may be more apt to allow
tripling and quadrupling up just to get an apartment full, that there
hasn’t been a huge surge. [more]