In New York, the word “rental” often invokes images of closet-sized bedrooms, broken elevators and unpleasant standoffs with landlords and rodents alike. A new influx of residential developments, however, are spurning the conventional wisdom of buying-is-best and instead are building towering luxury apartment buildings that cater to New York’s wealthiest renters.
In this smattering of new luxury rental buildings that dot the skyline, apartments feature ultra-luxe details like granite countertops and marble sinks that cite pre-war posh. They feature closets that would satisfy any Carrie Bradshaw impressionist and space for full-size dining tables. Amenities include everything from a valet garage and coffee bar to indoor swimming pools and screening rooms.
If that sounds nice, a two-bedroom could run you anywhere from $6,000 a month in a new rental building like DUMBO’s 220 Water Street, to $165,000 a month to rent the four-bedroom Astor Suite in the Plaza Hotel, the most expensive rental price in New York history.
“Expensive rentals are running galore. There are many more being built,” said Faith Hope Consolo, a chairman at Prudential Douglas Elliman. “There’s more people around with money than we believe. And they don’t mind renting.”
Sofia Song, vice president of research for the real estate site StreetEasy.com, says New York’s number of deep-pocketed renters has been on the rise since the real estate bubble burst in 2007.
The trend continued on: in 2010, the number of new leases signed on rental units going for upwards of $15,000 a month more than doubled from the year prior, according to the real estate appraiser Miller Samuel. In June of this year, the mean Manhattan rental price of a two-bedroom apartment was nearly $6,000, according to MNS.
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