Zillow to shutter Naked Apartments

Listing giant bought NYC rental site for $13M in 2016

StreetEasy GM Caroline Burton (iStock, Linkedin)
StreetEasy GM Caroline Burton (iStock, Linkedin)

Rental listings site Naked Apartments will go dark later this month as Zillow sends apartment seekers to StreetEasy instead.

Starting Oct. 28, apartment seekers who visit Naked Apartments in search of a New York City rental will be redirected to StreetEasy, according to an email notification. Going forward, Streetasy will have “the most complete set of NYC apartments available for rent,” the email said.

Zillow bought Naked Apartments for $13 million in 2016, three years after it bought StreetEasy for $50 million to gain a foothold in New York. Naked Apartments was founded in 2010 and billed itself as a hyperlocal rental platform with subway information, market data and agent reviews.

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A StreetEasy spokesperson confirmed Naked Apartments would be discontinued. “All of the same apartments you see on NakedApartments.com are already on other Zillow Group sites,” including StreetEasy, the spokesperson said.

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As of Thursday, StreetEasy listed 20,849 apartments available for rent throughout New York City.

Zillow has made several acquisitions over the past decade, and in many cases continues to operate established brands like Trulia, StreetEasy, HotPads and dotloop.

In the Hamptons, Zillow operates as Out East, after acquiring the listing platform Hamptons Real Estate Online. Zillow rolled out the new name in 2018, along with a glossy website to replace HREO’s portal, which hadn’t been updated significantly since the 1990s.

New York’s rental market is struggling as a result of mass unemployment and the departure of residents during the pandemic. Manhattan rental inventory climbed to a 14-year high last month as the vacancy rate hit a stunning 5.75 percent, according to the latest rental report from Douglas Elliman and appraiser Jonathan Miller.

The median net-effective rent in Manhattan fell to $3,036 per month, an 11 percent drop from $3,411 per month in September 2019.