With all the bad news for landlords (and good news for tenants) coming out of Manhattan, today's Observer says the Brooklyn market is bucking the trend: prices are holding steady except for some "winter doldrums" and that nobody's throwing around months of free rent as incentives to sign leases. A prudent person might add the word "yet," but while the Observer says "the gulf between quaint old Kings County and bustling Gotham is shrinking," the fact there are so many small landlords in the borough is holding off the flood. It does acknowledge that thousands of condo units that are coming on the market in the next 12 months or so that are likely to go rental, uh, could send demand for hip waders skyrocketing among landlords. The Observer puts it more elegantly, saying that there are changes coming to "the subsurface tectonics of the supply-and-demand fundamentals in the borough’s rental market." (That's the Viridian in the photo above, a Greenpoint condo that could be going nondo and be a harbinger of party times to come for potential tenants.)
One broker says that right now only two of the 20 properties she works for have started offering tenants Manhattan-like incentives. the sorts of incentives familiar on the other side of the East River. The managing partner of the Standish rental tower in Brookyn Heights that went on the market recently, however, is offering no-fee rentals, a full gym and modernized amenities, "and has recently lowered prices on underperforming units." He says: "It’s a dynamic situation, and we are cautiously optimistic and will continue to monitor the market." And what of North Brooklyn? We hear that there is a serious shortage of Depends, mainly because of brokers fixated on late 2009 and 2010 when thousands of condos will hit the market.
· Brookyn Rent Check [NYO]
· Good News: Brooklyn Rental Market Holding Up...So Far [Curbed]
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