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Month over month and year over year, rents in Manhattan and Brooklyn increased across the board — and move-in incentives were less plentiful.
The Corcoran Group’s newly released Rental Market Analysis for February 2020 finds that compared to the month prior, rents in Manhattan and Brooklyn increased across the board. In addition, pricing increased in both boroughs – for all apartment sizes – when compared to this time last year.
From January to February, rents for Manhattan studio apartments increased 1%, while they rose 2% for one-bedroom homes. For two- and three-bedroom homes, pricing climbed 4% and 3%, respectively.
In Brooklyn, rents increased for all apartment sizes as well. Rents for studio, two- and three-bedroom homes were up 1%, while one-bedroom apartments saw rents rise 2% on average.
When examining concessions, 30% of rental transactions brokered by The Corcoran Group offered a free month’s rent and/or payment of the broker fee to entice new tenants in February 2020 – lower than the 34% in January. The percentage of concessions is also down, albeit slightly, from the same period last year. In February 2019, 31% leases included one.
These move-in incentives continued to be much more prevalent in Brooklyn, where they were found on 45% of leases in February 2020 – versus 26% of Manhattan leases during the same period.
In February, the Manhattan vacancy rate was 1.11% – down considerably from January’s rate of 1.31%. It is the lowest vacancy rate seen since July 2019 (when it was also 1.11%). After increasing steadily since July, vacancies have now fallen for the second consecutive month.
“In February, the ‘stars aligned’ for landlords,” explained Gary Malin, Chief Operating Officer of The Corcoran Group. “Mild weather conditions drove increased traffic to available apartments. In addition, post-holiday season pent-up demand and sustained headwinds faced by would-be buyers caused the rental market to strengthen by all metrics. However, it was not all bad news for tenants. While the use of concessions was down, they were still found on nearly a third of all leases – especially in areas with a lot of new developments and on luxury product.”
