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The New York Times
Sunday July 9, 2024 Real Estate Section |
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Manhattan Renters Find Tighter Market
One Key Shift:Landlord no longer pay broker's fees. By Alan S. Oser Mobility is theoretically the beauty of renting. There's no need to worry about selling in order to relocate. But what if there's nothing much out there to rent? Inveterate renters who insist on staying in Manhattan-to say nothing of outsiders relocating to the city-are finding shrinking availablitlies and higher prices these days. The situation was foreseeable, and widely foreseen, even five years ago during the depth of the doldrums in the real-estate market. It was a buyers market then in sales as well as rentals. But gradually vacancies were absorbed. Meanwhile, new construction came almost to a standstill-and hasn't revived yet. The supply-demand balance has turned. Another consequence of the tightened market is that owners no longer offer brokers a payment to rent out apartments, thereby increasing the pressure on brokers to collect a full fee from tenants-usually 15 percent of a year's rent. Many tenant's feel they cannot afford such a fee, even if they get a quality of service that seems to justify it, which is not always the case. At 15 percent, a tenant renting a $1,200 apartment has to be ready for an initial payment of at least $4,560 by move in time- $1,200 for the first month's rent, $1,200 for a security deposit, and $2,150 as the fee. The level of brokerage has brought a competing form of middleman service, offered by, among others, The Apartment Store, operating from a loft premises on East 29th Street. At a fixed rate of $145, it provides customers with a fax or e-mail of available Manhattan apartments that fall within a client's rent ranges, size, and desired location. The faxes are dispatched regularly until an apartment is found. A staff of nine keeps in touch by phone with 920 owners or managing agents to get listings, said Barry Feinsmith, the owner. There are none below $800 a month... The newly married Elizabeth Herbert and Dr. Jerald Vizzone are moving tomorrow into a 22nd floor one bedroom renting at $1760. Mrs. Vizzone said she has lived in five different rentals over nine years. "Word of mouth is the most successful way of looking," she said, but she found her way to West End Towers via The Apartment Store, the eight-month-old fax service. Mr. Feinsmith, of The Apartment Store, said he had a database of 227,000 apartments in Manhattan in about 1,200 buildings from Columbia University to the Battery on the West Side and from 96th Street to the Battery on the East Side. |
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