The renter’s market heats up in NYC as a new report published by brokers DouglasElliman and appraisers Miller Samuel shows signings of new leases have hit a monthly all-time high with huge drops in rents throughout the City. According to an article by NBCNewYork there is now a surge in demand for rental properties as the boroughs begin to completely open up.
The monthly report indicates that there were over 9,000 leases signed during the period of April. This is the most ever recorded using the DouglasElliman/Miller Samuel report. The huge increase in demand starts in Queens where there was an increase of 224 percent. This was followed by 82 percent in Manhattan and 71 percent in Brooklyn. While lease signing have increased rental prices have diminished year over year. According to the report, “net effective median rent,” or rents minus landlord concessions, fell to $2,791. It is a 21 percent drop year over year and 6 percent decrease from the following month.
As landlords see the decrease in rents all over the City, they are also hedging their bets on higher prices when the pandemic restrictions are lifted and people can resume daily life pre-COVID. According to UrbanDigs data, more than 50 percent of unrented apartments in Manhattan are being kept off-market. The practice known as “warehousing” has become extremely common during the pandemic as landlords have deemed the market unstable presently. John Walkup co-founder of Urbandigs says that “It’s a sign landlords are waiting for prices to go back up in their favor. If you’re a renter you want to strike while the iron is hot and that time is right now.” While rents are expected to rebound the expectation of hitting normal rents won’t be until 2022 at the earliest. Streeteasy economist Nancy Wu believes that is so stating “Rent will continue to be lower than they were a year ago for the full year,” she said. “Even with the vaccine coming, it’s not going to magically make the huge glut of inventory go away. Prices will continue to fall until the inventory settles a bit, more people come back to the city, more jobs are recreated from the loss of small businesses, and the city returns, somewhat, back to where it was before the pandemic started.”
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