Strong leasing demand is garnering a bright spot in Manhattan housing market.
By year end, Manhattan luxury seekers will have more than 2,000 newly built rental apartments to pick from.
Moinian Group's Sky, New York City’s largest rental tower will debut in just days ahead. Moinian is leveraging the leasing market in a bid for priced-out buyers. The 71-story tower is Moinian’s bet that leasing demand and prices will continue to rise as would-be buyers remain shut out of a sales market that offers few choices for residents who are not multimillionaires.
The first tenants will move into luxury Sky Tower at 42nd Street and 11th Avenue next week. It's the borough’s largest, single multifamily building, with 1,175 units. It features two outdoor pools, a pet spa, and a regulation basketball court.
Leasing of some 300 apartments started in June with rents starting from $3K for a studio to $6.2K for a 2-bedder.
Sky's perks for a stand-alone city includes a hair and nail salon, a café offering three meals a day, a billiards lounge, a landscaped garden and concierge services.
“Sky is the most impressive rental building ever built in New York City, and we believe the market will continue to respond to that very well as they have since we opened for leasing.” Moinian said. About half of the tower’s currently available apartments have found tenants.
“It’s not easy to buy in New York, and that’s true more than ever today. That’s leading to a lot of renters. It’s a renter’s world,” according to Mitchell Moinian, senior vice president.
A growing pool of tenants has pushed Manhattan rents up more than 18% since the recession ended in June 2009. The November vacancy rate of 2.87% is the highest since August 2006, according to Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel.
Over 6,700 newly built rental apartments will come on stream at market rates next year, the most since 2005, according to Citi Habitats. Most of the units will be priced in the top 10%, or luxury tier of the market, said Gary Malin, president of Citi Habitats.
Source: Bloomberg