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According to a new study, Manhattan rents have dropped for the first time since 2010.
Manhattan, whose rents always had skyrocketed are seeing a dip in prices, thanks to COVID-19. The July 16 report from real estate site StreetEasy which had analyzed property prices in the second half of 2020 have reported that due to lack of demand for apartments and increase in rental vacancies, there was a dip in rents owing all the credit to coronavirus.
From April to June 2019, the rents of apartments in Manhattan were $3,395 at an average. When calculated in the same months during 2020, the rental average was $3300 which indicates a 2.8 percent reduction.
Not only did Manhattan’s rental prices dropped, but the property owners have slashed a record 6.7 percent off asking rents.
As work from home has become a new norm and is going to remain the same way, the need for employees to stay nearby their offices has been eliminated which resulted in empty apartments across the borough.
So, landlords are opting for rent reductions to fill their empty apartments in the city which was a hotspot of coronavirus.
For instance, a studio in one of the Manhattan’s districts in the desired neighborhood of Greenwich Village once charged $2700 per month and now the price has been cut by 8 percent which makes the rent to be $2495 just five days later.
In Brooklyn too the rents have seen a decline in prices. About 25.6 percent of the rental capacities have received a discount in the second quarter of 2020 of up to 8.6 percent.
While prices and demand of rental properties have fallen since the pandemic, New Yorkers are still ogling for rental listings. The study says the number of visitors to the rental properties has actually increased lately.
Brooklyn received the biggest jump in every year search interest for rental apartments during the second half of 2020 with 26 percent more searches than in 2019.
Interestingly, it is not only the reduction of rental prices that is in the horizon but people checking how the ongoing coronavirus pandemic would affect the rent prices that is on surge. Many people have started assuming that they would be able to get better deals by moving, according to Street Easy website.
By Gayatri Yellayi
