Category: Residential Real Estate

According to a report from Rent Cafe, New York City has retained its title as No. 1 in apartment construction thus far in 2023. The report estimates that at least 33,000 new rental units are set to be opened this year.

Of these units expected to be completed before the end of the year, most of them are either in Brooklyn, Manhattan or Queens. Brooklyn has the most at 9,825, followed by Queens (4,430) and Manhattan (3,770). The Bronx and Staten Island were not included in the metro data set for New York City.

Rent Cafe credits the large amount of construction in New York City being an effort to cut down on housing shortage concerns. As the only northeastern location in the top 20 metros for apartment construction in 2023, there is a high demand for housing in New York City.

From 2020-2022, 66,070 new apartments were opened in New York City, according to data collected by Rent Cafe. This large production was meant as a means to bring housing to more residents new and old. This also reflects high demand even during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. The only metro area to see more units built during that span was Dallas, TX, at 76,660.

RentCafe.com is a nationwide apartment search website that enables renters to easily find apartments and houses for rent across the country.

In order to compile this report, Rent Cafe’s research team analyzed new apartment construction data across 296 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. The study is exclusively based on apartment data related to buildings containing at least 50 units. Metros with less than 300 units or less than two properties/buildings were excluded from the study.

Yardi Matrix, a business development and asset management tool for brokers, sponsors, banks and equity sources underwriting investments in the multifamily, office, industrial and self-storage sectors, provided apartment data for Rent Cafe. Apartment projections at the metro and city level for 2023 were calculated based on a Yardi Matrix proprietary algorithm, which includes confirmed and likely completions for 2023 based on the issuance of a certificate of occupancy. Once the certificate of occupancy is issued, the status of the property can be considered “completed”.

The U.S. Census Bureau provided data on estimated population by metro area.

Article available on Qns.com.

By 6sqft.com, Aaron Ginsberg

New housing will be allowed in parts of Midtown Manhattan for the first time in decades under a plan announced by Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday. The mayor wants to update zoning rules to allow for the construction of new apartments in a 42-block area stretching from 23rd Street to 40th Street and from Fifth Avenue to Eighth Avenue, which is currently designated for manufacturing use. The start of the rezoning effort joins another proposal from the Adams administration to facilitate and expedite office-to-housing conversions across every borough, as the city continues to face a housing shortage.

Under the so-called Midtown South Neighborhood Plan, the city would update zoning rules to transform four areas in the neighborhood into a dynamic, live-work community with affordable housing and good jobs.

The plan also includes the exploration of opportunities to convert non-residential buildings into housing, boost economic growth, support local businesses, and create jobs. The public outreach process will begin in the fall.

“In central Manhattan where new housing is currently not allowed because of outdated zoning, our office conversion and reimagining Midtown South increase our housing supply and they help our economy to flourish by revitalizing our business districts, which are our city’s economic engine,” Adams said during Thursday’s press briefing.

“To expedite office-to-residential conversions citywide, the mayor said zoning changes would allow office buildings constructed before 1990 to convert to housing; currently, the cut-off is 1961 or 1977, depending on the area. Doing this would free up 136 million square feet of office space across the city to become apartments, although the city notes the decision remains with the property owner.

The changes would also allow for a variety of housing types, including supportive housing, shared housing, and dormitories.

Early this year, Adams estimated converting underused offices could create 20,000 homes for 40,000 New Yorkers over the next decade.

“It makes no sense to allow office buildings to sit empty while New Yorkers struggle to find housing. By enabling office conversions, New York will reinvigorate its business districts and deliver new homes near jobs and transit,” Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce, said.

Adams on Thursday also launched the new Office Conversions Accelerator, a program led by experts from across city government, to work with building owners to speed up the conversion process. The panel of experts hailing from the city’s Department of Buildings, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Board of Standards and Appeals, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission, will utilize the city’s resources to help building owners complete complex conversion projects.

“With a proposal to rewrite zoning regulations so unused office space can become homes for New Yorkers, it’s unbelievable how much empty office space we have sitting idly by with ready and willing participants to develop the housing, and we are in the way,” Adams said during a press briefing Thursday.

“Well, it’s time to get out of the way so we can turn these office cubicles into nice living quarters so that we can address the housing crisis we have.”

In December 2022, Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul revealed their plans to transform Manhattan’s central business districts into dynamic neighborhoods in order to prepare the city for a post-pandemic world. While all of the city’s business hubs in the outer boroughs have experienced a speedy economic recovery since the end of the pandemic, Manhattan’s business centers, in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, have lagged behind mainly due to the lack of workers, many of whom have started working from home.

As part of the city and state’s plan, zoning restrictions will be amended to create new, flexible residential areas that will be more “live-work-play” rather than following the same policies that have shown to be no longer suitable for a post-pandemic world.”

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge on Tuesday dismissed lawsuits filed by Airbnb and three hosts over New York City’s rules for short-term rentals, saying the restrictions are “entirely rational.”

In a 14-page ruling, Supreme Court Judge Arlene P. Bluth said having to comply with a registration system does not present an “overly onerous obligation” to the company and hosts. Such a system, she said, will help identify many illegal short-term rentals before they’re listed on the Airbnb platform.

“To be sure, these rules will likely not be perfect,” she added. “But it addresses a problem raised by OSE (New York City Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement) and avoids a key obstacle — enforcing the ban on illegal short-term rentals.”

A city official cited thousands of illegal short-term rentals when defending the new rules in court, noting 43,000 on just Airbnb in 2018. The city received nearly 12,000 complaints regarding illegal short-term rentals from 2017 to 2021.

New York’s 2022 ordinance requires owners to register with the mayor’s office, disclose who else lives in the property, and promise to comply with zoning, construction and maintenance ordinances.

San Francisco-based Airbnb has called the restrictions “extreme and oppressive” and a de facto ban against short-term rentals that left the company no choice but to sue.

“Taken together, these features of the registration scheme appear intended to drive the short-term rental trade out of New York City once and for all,” Airbnb said in June. The company said the mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement “failed to consider reasonable alternatives.”

Asked to respond to the court’s decision, Theo Yedinsky, global policy director for Airbnb, on Tuesday evening said the city’s rules are “a blow to its tourism economy and the thousands of New Yorkers and small businesses in the outer boroughs who rely on home sharing and tourism dollars to help make ends meet.”

From the Gothamist

Lead pipes may carry water to as many as 900,000 New York City homes, more than 60 years after such pipes were banned across the five boroughs, according to a new report by the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning.

By analyzing publicly available data from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, the report found that nearly half of all buildings in Brooklyn and Manhattan are served by pipes that are either certainly or potentially made of lead, a dangerous heavy metal that can cause permanent brain damage and other developmental problems in children if consumed. Staten Island’s Port Richmond had the highest proportion among individual neighborhoods.

The pipes need to be replaced for the health of the public, said Joan Matthews, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which contributed to the report. That’s why she and the report’s other authors want the City Council to pass a bill mandating that city agencies replace the lead pipes within the next decade.

Why lead pipes remain in NYC

• Lead is a dangerous heavy metal that can cause permanent brain damage in children.
• New York City’s water supply is lead-free, but it can become contaminated in the service lines that lead from water mains to people’s homes. About 40% of city service lines are believed to contain lead.
• You can check the status of your pipes on the Department of Environmental Protection’s Water Connection Information map.
• If your home has a lead or possible lead service line, follow the Department of Environmental Protection’s guidelines for reducing exposure. You can also follow that link to request a free test kit.

New York City treats its water to prevent corrosion, the chemical reaction by which lead flakes off the pipes and into the water supply, according to the Department of Environmental Protection. “While we agree that privately-owned lead service lines should be removed, and are actively working to do that, NYC’s daily water supply is safe,” DEP Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala said via an emailed statement.

But lead levels can still spike depending on the temperature of the water and the time since it was last turned on. Nearly a decade ago, Flint, Michigan experienced a lead crisis after merely switching what water source went through its pipes.

New York City outlawed new installations of lead service lines — the pipes that carry water from central mains to individual buildings — in 1961. But many of the predating lead service lines are still underground, and because so much time has passed, it’s unclear exactly how many remain.

For the new report, the data team for the NYC Coalition to End Lead Poisoning — a group of experts and advocates that’s been campaigning for the cause since the 1980s — studied lead service line records published biannually by the Department of Environmental Protection. The city agency identifies confirmed lead service lines throughout the five boroughs. It also labels a pipe “potential lead” if historical records indicate that at least a portion of the water service line is lead. But it’s hard to know for sure because the pipes were installed so long ago.

The report’s authors classified the number of each service line by neighborhood and joined the counts with population data to estimate how many New Yorkers use the poisonous pipes.

The report found about 40% of citywide service lines include some lead pipe. Those service lines provide water to an estimated 1.8 million people, or more than 20% of the city’s population.

Brooklyn and Manhattan led the city in the estimated proportion of lead service lines, at 46% and 44%, respectively. The Bronx, meanwhile, had the largest chunk of confirmed lead service lines of all the boroughs.

Staten Island had a below-average proportion of lead service lines at the borough level, but its Port Richmond neighborhood, situated on its North Shore, had the largest share by far of lead service lines: an estimated 61% of its pipes are either believed or confirmed to contain lead. East Harlem, Coney Island in Brooklyn and Jamaica in Queens also ranked high on the list of neighborhoods most plagued by lead service lines.