MANHATTAN — For the first time in two years, it is a little bit cheaper to rent an apartment in Manhattan, according to a report released on Thursday.
Average rental prices in Manhattan for March dropped 2.8 percent to $3,989 compared with $4,126 March 2015, while the median rental price slipped 3.3 percent to $3,300 from $3,395 last March, according to a report by Douglas Elliman.
The decline is the first stall after two years of steady increases — and the decline was seen across every part of the rental market, according to the report.
The biggest drop came in the luxury market, where the average rental price dropped by 5.5 percent to $10,170 from $10,766 in March 2015 and the median price slipped 3.5 percent to $8,228 from $8,530 last March.
The slowdown in rental luxury prices mirrors a possible plateau of luxury sales, with some experts predicting a drop-off in the sale of ultra-luxury condos, like those on the so-called “Billionaire’s Row” on 57th Street, according to Gabby Warshawer, director of research for the real-estate group CityRealty.
“These are super expensive buildings, and there’s a limit to how many prospective buyers there are out there,” she said. “I mean, do you have $50 million to spend on a condo?”
In what could also provide some small relief to prospective renters in Manhattan, the share of apartments where landlords gave concessions to tenants more than doubled, while the vacancy rate expanded to 2.42 percent from 1.99 percent in March 2015, according to the Elliman report.
