Manhattan Housing Cycle Turns Toward Rentals

With the vacancy rate for rental apartments at less than 1% in Manhattan and sales of condominiums slowing, a number of developers have turned their focus to construction of residential rental apartments.

"Developers today are increasingly looking to build rental units for two main supply side reasons and one demand side reason," the chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, Robert Knakal, said via e-mail."On the supply side, the number of condominium units is increasing rapidly while & the velocity of sales in this segment is slowing," meaning there is no reason to add to the inventory unless a project has significant, unique characteristics, he said."That being said, the inventory of available units is minimal and rents & now approach & $80 per square foot for well-located new construction. Trends in demand are exacerbating these supply side issues as the number of people looking to move into New York continues to increase.

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