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October, 2005 >> return to MAI in the news Upper East Side a Renter's Mecca
HIGLIGHTED MANAGERS:
You need to rent a Manhattan apartment, and you need it fast. Where do you go? The answer may surprise you. The Upper East Side is your best bet, real estate Specifically, the area from Third Avenue to East End Avenue, and E. 72nd to E. 96th streets, is fertile ground for apartment hunters. Many renters think of multi-million-dollar Park Avenue co-ops when they think of the Upper East Side - and write off the neighborhood as snooty or staid. "A lot of people come to us and say they want to live downtown,"said Adjina Dekidjiev, the rental operations manager at brokerage Manhattan Apartments Inc. "We have to explain to them there aren't many rentals available." But on the east side of the Upper East Side, there's plenty to choose from, she said. Her firm had listings for 468 available apartments in the area last week. This part of the neighborhood has a promising mix of rental buildings - sleek modern high-rises, white-brick apartment houses built after World War II, stately row houses and plainer brick walk-up buildings. To be sure, this part of the neighborhood has some very fancy homes - including the city's most exclusive residence, Gracie Mansion. And there are some expensive rentals. Manhattan Apartments, Inc. is showing one for $22,500 per month. The lease runs for a year at a time - just like with ordinary apartments - meaning the people who take this one will pay a staggering $270,000 per year. Every single hour in residence will cost them $31.25. The five-bedroom flat is on the 39th floor of a tony doorman building in the East 70s, which has a private no-fee health club with a huge swimming pool. People come looking for apartments like this, Dekidjiev said - like the client who showed up the other day who had sold his house on Long Island and wanted to try out city living before buying a place. For the rest of us, there are hundreds of apartments on any given day that are a little less expensive than rentals in downtown neighborhoods. ...As in other Manhattan nabes, you get better deals by choosing walkups and going without a doorman, and living further from the subway. On the Upper East Side, a little extra distance goes a long way on price-chopping. "If you walk five minutes from the train, you save a couple hundred dollars a month in rent," Dekidjiev said. If you want the bargains, you must be ready to make a deal on the spot. After some slow years, Manhattan's rental market is hot again, and there's fierce competition for appealing apartments. On a recent weekend, Manhattan Apartments, Inc. listed an Upper East Side studio for $1,325 per month. Twenty people showed up at the firm's office to rent it - and the one who got it had pay stubs and other documents in hand, plus a certified check. "If you want something decent, you have to have your paperwork with you - references and an employment letter, the whole shebang," said Bridget Smalley, the rental director of Manhattan Apartments, Inc. |
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brokers and landlords said.