The Real Estate Group New York, in its first Year-End Manhattan Rental Market Report, said that the borough’s rental market remained “relatively strong” last year.
Non-doorman two-bedroom buildings had the year’s biggest increases, climbing 14.1 percent. Non-doorman studios increased by 6.4 percent, while one-bedrooms increased by 2.6 percent.
For doorman buildings, one-bedroom apartments increased the most at 4.9 percent, while two-bedrooms increased 3.3 percent and studios increased 2.2 percent.
Prices began to weaken in the fourth quarter, and the report said the credit crunch and threat of job cuts in Manhattan “could easily push the rental side of the market from positive to negative.”
“The citywide numbers we’re seeing do indicate healthy growth, which suggests that Manhattan real estate has so far managed to weather the nervous conditions of a weakening U.S. housing market,” Daniel Baum, The Real Estate Group’s co-founder and COO, said in a statement. “On the other hand, significant rental declines in some areas of the city and all-around softening prices in the fourth quarter of ’07 may be foreshadowing declines in ’08.”
Soho was the only neighborhood to see lower year-end declines across the board. Soho’s “reputation for luxury lofts may have sent renters looking for more traditional apartments to other neighborhoods,” the report said.TRD