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GayCityNews.com | APRIL 21 - May 4, 2022
Real Estate
How to Get an Apartment in NYC’s Busy Rental Market
Renters scramble to secure spaces as prices climb amid lower inventory
BY HEATHER CASSELL
The battle is on for New York
renters on the hunt for their
next great home.
Sweet pandemic deals
that allowed New Yorkers to ditch
roommates or upgrade their apartments
and neighborhoods in 2020 are
now feeling the burn. Those sweet pandemic
leases are expiring. New Yorkers
are on the move battling skyrocketing
rents and fewer available apartments.
“There’s not a lot of inventory. They’re
finding that in Manhattan the rents
can be going up by 30 percent, sometimes
40 percent from what they got
on their good COVID discount,” said
Doug Williford, the gay chief strategy
officer at Brown Harris Stevens. “So,
that’s gotten really tight.”
The problem, is this comes at a time
when the city’s available rental housing
is below 2 percent, according to
appraisal firm Miller Samuel’s Elliman
Report for Manhattan, Brooklyn, and
Queens.
New York’s leaders didn’t add as much
housing as other Northeast cities, approving
just 2.4 new units per 1,000
New Yorkers in 2020, according the New
York Post. The federal data was made
available online by Sidharth Kapur, an
engineer, who made the data accessible
to a broad audience.
“New York City is failing to produce
enough rental housing, particularly at
below-market rents, to keep up with
population growth — and it’s making
the housing crisis even worse,” James
Whalen, president of the Real Estate
Board of New York, told the Post.
The result: a record white hot rental
market, unlike anything many of New
York’s housing experts have ever seen
before, even surpassing many of their
winter predictions and warnings.
Rents across New York are bouncing
back beyond pre-pandemic figures in
some neighborhoods. Many renters are
heading into the outer fringes of Brooklyn
and Queens in search of low rent
and more space, according to Rent-
Hop’s March 2022 report. Some renters
are searching for roommate situations,
while others are biting the bullet and
choosing to stay put.
Those who are braving the market
are witnessing a historic moment
in New York’s rental market. Bidding
wars are commonplace in homebuying,
but about 20 percent of rental
deals in Manhattan come from bidding
wars, according to appraisal firm Miller
Samuel’s Elliman Report for Manhattan,
Brooklyn, and Queens rental
markets.
Desperate New York renters are
bidding, lining up to see apartments,
adding their names to waitlists, signing
leases sight unseen, and willingly
paying the broker’s fees. A few renters
are converting to homebuyers.
Last month, Gay City News helped
New York homebuyers navigate the
city’s hot market. This month, the
newspaper has some tips for renters to
beat the sizzling hot rental market:
Do Your Homework:
Whether you are staying or going,
know what cards you hold and what
your options are. Know your rights as
a renter. New York City strengthened
renter protections in 2019.
Research the type of building you
are living in. Approximately, half of
New York’s 2.2 million rental units
are rent-stabilized with an additional
27,000 that are rent controlled, according
to New York’s Rent Guidelines
Board. Are you living in a rent-stabilized
apartment or is it a market rate
apartment?
Are you living in a private familyowned
and -operated building or a
building managed by an anonymous
property management company? Research
your landlord. Ask your neighbors
about your landlord. See if anyone
has rated your landlord on OpenIgloo
or other renter apps.
Research what the going rents are
in your neighborhood and surrounding
and targeted neighborhoods.
Use technology to your advantage.
Use rental apps such as HotPads,
OpenIgloo, RentHop, StreetEasy, and
Zumper to search for apartments.
The apps can also help you research
your landlord and neighborhood, and
roommate apps, such as SpareRoom,
can help you find a room and research
potential roommates.
Be a tourist in your potential new
neighborhood. Check out your target
neighborhoods by taking a tour, walking
around, and hanging out for an
afternoon.
Be Prepared:
Williford believes renters need to
provide more information than homebuyers
when applying for an apartment.
“One of my favorite clients ever actually
came to me with a binder that
was tagged with all the information
they needed,” Williford said. “I almost
cried. I was like, ‘you have a place in
my heart.’”
They need their financials in order
and clearly stated (credit report,
three months of bank statements and
paystubs, tax return, proof of future
income).
Smaller landlords could be won
over by a rental resume or biography,
reference letters (previous landlords,
your current landlord, neighbors,
and separate reference letters for
your pets).
Weigh Your Costs:
Will it cost you more to move than
to stay? Tally up those moving costs
and compare them against your rent
increase. Do they balance out or tip
the scale?
Negotiate:
Did you wait to receive your rent increase
letter or were you proactive and
reached out to your landlord? According
to the New York Times, landlords
are reaching out to tenants 90 to 120
days before their leases are due to expire
to find out what their plans are.
Even if you received the letter notifying
you that your rent is going to be
increased, that doesn’t mean you can’t
negotiate.
AdobeStock/Ka thy Images
Rents across New York are bouncing back beyond pre-pandemic figures in some neighborhoods.
/GayCityNews.com
