With an estimated 6,000 units expected to hit the Brooklyn market and millions of dollars in sales up for grabs, competition between brokerage firms is fierce.
About 22,000 units total are planned to hit the market before 2019, more than double the 10,000 that went up for sale from 2010 to 2014, according to CityRealty.
The vast majority of the units coming on the market are rentals, the Wall Street Journal reported. Median apartment rents in the borough were stagnant in the fourth quarter in 2015 when compared to the same time period the previous year, according to a report by Miller Samuel.
Brooklyn real estate firms ruled the borough until the recent boom, when Manhattan firms started moving in. Halstead Property bought Brooklyn-based Aguayo Real Estate Group in 2013 and Citi Habitats bought aptsandlofts.com at the end of last year.
Citi Habitats represents more than 10 new Brooklyn rental developments, which contain about 100 units. That’s more than any other brokerage in the borough, according to the Journal.
Back in December, The Real Deal looked at Brooklyn brokerages with the largest number of exclusive listings. Most of the same players were represented, with the Corcoran Group leading the pack with 362.
Meanwhile, other big Manhattan players, such as Halstead, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran Sunshine have dominated the new development sales market, according to the Journal.
Firms are also opening outposts in the borough. Compass plans to open offices in Park Slope and Williamsburg, in part to grab more of the new development sales and rental business, the firm’s Billy Goldstein told the Journal.
“We see five to 10 new opportunities per week in our group and half of those are in Brooklyn,” Goldstein told the paper. [WSJ] — Dusica Sue Malesevic