How not to stage a micro apartment

Listing photos show space is so small, mini fridge has to sit on top of bunk bed

Listing for a unit at 114 West 71st Street (credit: Twitter user @_bg0ld)
Listing for a unit at 114 West 71st Street (credit: Twitter user @_bg0ld)

This Upper West Side micro studio is big enough to hold a mini fridge… as long as it’s sitting on the top of the apartment’s bunk bed.

The 140-square-foot apartment was listed on StreetEasy earlier this week at 114 West 71st Street asking $1,375 per month, Gothamist reported.

But after Digg.com wrote about the listing, it was removed from StreetEasy.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

A real estate manager who works in the area told Gothamist that the listing could have been taken down because “it’s most likely an illegal residential unit. NYC DOB zoning codes usually say how much minimum square footage is allowed for each area, plus generally you need at least one window.”

The minimum size of an apartment in New York City is 400 square feet. There are exceptions, though, such as Carmel Place on East 27th Street, which opened as the city’s first micro-unit apartment building in 2016.

In Hong Kong, high property prices are driving more and more buyers into apartments no bigger than 300 square feet. [Gothamist] – Rich Bockmann