Report sees Manhattan apartment rents, occupancy stabilizing in 2nd quarter

Report: Manhattan apartment rents stabilizing

NEW YORK — Apartment rents in Manhattan continued to decline in the second quarter, but demand improved with the number of empty apartments falling sharply, according to a new report.

The report issued Thursday by Prudential Douglas Elliman, one of New York’s largest real estate brokerages, shows the median rent for a Manhattan apartment fell 3.2 percent in the second quarter to $3,000. It was $3,100 in the same period a year ago.

However, the number of rentals during the quarter more than doubled to 5,659 units from 2,346 units a year earlier. And the pool of available apartments for rent tumbled nearly 32 percent to 4,972 units from 7,290 units in the prior-year period, the firm said.

Meanwhile, the amount of time it typically takes to rent out an apartment fell to about 53 days from 83 days last year.

Taken together, the trends suggest the apartment market is improving, said Dottie Herman, Prudential Douglas Elliman’s president and chief executive.

“Renters are now paying closer to asking rents than they have in several years, and landlords have been able rely less on concessions to manage their vacancies,” Herman said.

Landlords have cut their reliance on rental promotions to levels seen before the fall of 2008, when the financial crisis upended Wall Street, leaving many landlords scrambling to attract tenants.

Prudential Douglas Elliman said rental listing discounts fell to 1.8 percent in the second quarter from 9.5 percent a year earlier.