It’s tough times for the city’s luxury landlords, but those renting out pads at Trump Tower face a particularly unique set of challenges.
The cheapest rental at the building — still home to First Lady Melania Trump and son Barron, at least until the summer — is a one-bedroom asking $5,250 a month, Bloomberg reported. It comes with one month of free rent, and its rent has been slashed 30 percent since June.
Out of the 16 condominium units listed for rent at Trump Tower [TRDataCustom] in December, seven had their asking price lowered, StreetEasy data show, according to the publication. The median rent for units listed was $8,000, a fall of around 5.9 percent year-over-year.
Rental concessions are hitting record highs in Manhattan, and the problem is particularly severe at the high end of the market.
But tenants at Trump Tower will have to contend with Secret Service security, police barricades, a throng of media and, most likely, ongoing protests. The president has said he’d like to spend as much as time as possible in the building, which has now been dubbed “White House North.” An extra challenge is that the 68-story building is competing with luxury condos nearby, like Extell Development’s One57 and the Baccarat, which do not come with the extra security issues.
“It’s an inconvenience to some, but there are people who say, ‘You know what? This is the safest building in the city now,”’ Julius Liu, whose firm NY NY Condo, Inc. manages and rents a number of units at the building, told Bloomberg. “You can’t get any safer than where we are now.” [Bloomberg] — Miriam Hall