BHS seeks more East End action amid slow rental market

Brown Harris Stevens has opened a new office in East Hampton to capture more traffic in a central location on Long Island’s East End. Judging from how the rental market was shaping up as of the last week of May, a little extra walk-in traffic won’t hurt.

Brown Harris is moving its entire East Hampton operations to 27 Main Street, which was formerly the site of East Hampton Village Hall. The 1918 neoclassical structure began life as the East Hampton National Bank, and will replace the firm’s old location at 37 Newtown Lane.

Rental market conditions leading up to Memorial Day weekend were weaker than the previous year, brokers said.

“It hasn’t been as strong a rental season,” said Stuart Epstein, owner of Devlin-McNiff Real Estate. “In general, the rentals have been behind 25 percent.”

Tina S. Fredericks, owner of a firm by the same name, said she is also dealing with a depressed rental market.

“People want rentals for less time and less money,” she said.

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Michael Daly, the vice president of operations for Corcoran’s East End offices, also found renters wanting to commit to shorter periods of time.

But Daly has also witnessed a “blooming at the top end of the rental market.”

Last summer, Russian heiresses Anna Anisimova rented Denise Rich’s sprawling Southampton mansion for $550,000 – the highest price ever paid for a Hamptons summer rental. No word yet on whether the record will be broken this year.

While the rental market has taken a hit in the past few years due to lowered interest rates, the sales market is operating at maximum capacity. Daly, who believes Corcoran is headed for another record year, said, “typically it is a buying and selling market for investment purposes. People who rent have made a concerted decision not to be in that market.”

Last-minute renters looking for less conspicuous digs at low prices may still be in luck.

All three brokerages are still seeing plenty of availability and opportunities for last-minute summer rentals.

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