Have you ever passed by an interesting residential building in New York City and wanted to know more about its history? In this series, Brick Underground teams up with Tom Miller, creator of Daytonian in Manhattan, a blog about Manhattan buildings and other historic architecture. Each week, we run an excerpt from the Daytonian’s archives with a link to the full article.
German-born architect Jobst Hoffmann filed plans for a “five-story brick apartment house” at 29 East 7th St. in February 1880 for developer Isaak Horchster. Hoffmann’s plans projected the cost of construction at $11,000, or about $357,000 in 2026 terms. Soon after, Hoffman was hired by Z. H. Miller to design two apartment buildings at 25 and 27 East 7th St. that would exactly match 29 East 7th Street.
Hoffman’s design was a blend of Queen Anne and neo-Grec styles. He also included a whimsical cast iron fencing and stoop railings with stylized sunflowers.
The paired ground-floor openings shared a lintel decorated with a small rosette. The centered entrance was crowned with an earred cornice inspired by ancient Greece. The four upper stories were clad in red brick and trimmed in sandstone. Hooded lintels decorated the second and fourth floor openings and between the third and fourth, Hoffmann added colorful encaustic, quilt-like tiles.
No. 29 East 7th Street was known as a double flat, which meant there were two apartments per floor. Among the initial tenants was Auguste Schelcher. He was on his way with friends to the ball of the Société Culinaire Philanthropique on the evening of April 30th, 1883, when his night of gaiety turned to horror. The New York Times reported that as they passed 404 Sixth Ave., Désiré L. Houvet, a French chef and another member of the Société Culinaire Philanthropique, exited the building and collapsed.
The “elegantly dressed” Houvet had just been stabbed in the back by Elizabeth Quinquinet. The New York Times would later explain, “Houvet, who was single, had led Mrs. Quinquinet astray and they had quarreled.” The 33-year-old Houvet died on the scene.
The Hessler family occupied an apartment here in 1896 when their 15-year-old son, Charles, became a hero of sorts. On the afternoon of July 7th, Charles was on the Bowery near Catharine Street. He saw 68-year-old John M. Sweitzer, who was inebriated and staggering along the sidewalk. Suddenly three men rushed up and robbed him of $40. The New-York Tribune explained that Sweitzer, “was unable, owing to his condition, to furnish any description of the robbers.”
Young Hessler, however, was able to describe them and pointed out one of the accomplices to police. On the weight of teen’s affidavit, the accomplice was committed to the Tombs Prison for further investigation.
By 1924, the basement level of 29 East 7th St. had been converted to two commercial spaces. Operating from one of them that year was George Withers Music Co.
There are still just two apartments per floor in 29 East 7th St. Because Z. H. Miller wisely decided to have Hoffmann recreate his design at Nos. 25 and 27, the trio has an enhanced presence.
Last week, Anthropic published its prediction of what the economic impact of AI on the U.S. economy is going to be for the next few years. The company thinks the U.S. can reach a $44.4 trillion GDP or higher by 2030, provided, of course, it conveniently adopts AI at a rapid pace. Having said that, Anthropic admits “the challenge is making sure that the gains are broadly shared.”
The interactive post has a simulator where readers can plug in their estimates on key factors and get their own future predictions, within the firm’s analysis and perspective. That’s definitely interesting to play around with, but perhaps the most relevant piece of information is the lens through which Anthropic views the world.
Anthropic establishes its reasoning by first placing tasks in broad categories and using a nurse’s workday as an example. They removed tasks, including those that will disappear naturally as technology progresses, like collecting data on paper or physically visiting the patient to collect basic vitals — neither happens anymore as remote monitoring becomes commonplace. However, some new tasks are added, like keeping an eye on dashboards for the aforementioned AI-powered monitoring.
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Then, there are naturally the tasks that a bot can’t perform, like bathing a patient. Augmented tasks include those that require a human, but can be made more efficient with AI: helping with triage, planning schedules, and assisting with dashboard data. Some tasks may be fully automated, like keeping supply closets full or scheduling follow-up patient visits. Finally, AI usage can introduce some tasks of its own, like reviewing automated triaging or double-checking dashboard alerts — perhaps even impromptu data recovery.
The company’s predictions broadly hinge on how ubiquitous AI usage becomes, and therefore, the number of tasks transitioning into fully or partially automated. Unsurprisingly, Anthropic believes that the more entrenched AI gets, the more value the country creates, though at greater risk — and on an exponential scale, no less
Three models are presented, from “modest” economical impact to “extreme.” The modest model establishes a 1.6% GDP rise to $34.1 trillion, an impact Anthropic says is in line with that of new technologies like the internet, and crucially, doesn’t imply tectonic shifts to unemployment rates or wages.
For the “substantial impact” scenario, although AI is predicted to be able to do half of “knowledge work,” mostly without intervention, adoption remains limited. This scenario foresees twice the normal economic growth, this time +8.3% to $36.3 trillion.
This future marks the inflection point at which Anthropic believes knowledge workers see their wages remain steady instead of growing, though it’s not clear if the firm accounts for inflation. Additionally, the firm states that “knowledge workers may see a lot of automation and displacement […] coders and call service center agents may have to switch to jobs like electrician and nurse”, a statement some might argue is already true. In that sense, Anthropic expects other workers to start seeing more cash.
The eyebrow-raising prediction for both the above scenarios, though, is that Anthropic expects unemployment to “stay within ranges history has seen before,” an odd statement given modern U.S. history contains events like the Great Depression. The company does note that it expects job churn to increase, but also that while “this process can be painful, [it] works relatively well from a macroeconomic perspective.” Average wages are expected to rise across all three scenarios, though the increase is expected to go towards workers outside of knowledge areas.
In the “extreme” scenario, Anthropic expects significant changes. Should AI be super-widely adopted, the GDP can increase by 32.4%, corresponding to a cool $44.4 trillion, a “profound economic transformation.” This is the point at which the firm expects that AI becomes more productive than humans for most knowledge work, and does so with near-autonomy. Equally worryingly, it’s expected that there will be “essentially no” new knowledge tasks created.
Anthropic notes that to reach this kind of stage, the country would “likely require” recursively self-improving AI (using the AI to make better AI). There’s a significant catch, however, as though the U.S. would be “far richer than [it’s] ever been,” knowledge workers would be the hardest hit with a 10% wage drop, plus overall unemployment would climb “beyond typical recessionary levels.” Manual labor would be prized, though, given that “as AI increases productivity within knowledge work, the demand for manual work that benefits from that productivity will increase.”
Scenarios aside, the one big question is: How would all that GDP money land in people’s pockets? Anthropic admits this problem is a “challenge” and offers little solution for it. Such a high amount of future AI penetration might prove a hard sell, considering wealth inequality in the U.S. already sits at its highest level for the last few decades and is trending in that direction in most developed nations. Others might argue with Anthropic’s assessment that unemployment levels would remain somewhat in the less extreme scenarios, seeing as job cuts are rampant across many sectors and have hit technology-related fields the hardest.
To its credit, Anthropic clearly highlights part of the wealth-inequality issue. The company admits that more AI automation might skew the current 60/40% balance between labor and capital, respectively, strongly tilting the scale in favor of capital ownership and increasing inequality. Many argue that’s already happening today. There’s also the matter that the prediction appears to assume little competition from other countries, nor does it offer insight as to what would happen to “AI-less” nations.
The interactive blog post and its simulator are worth a good read and fiddling with, regardless. Anthropic published the technical details on the mathematical model used in a separate article and published its Economic Policy Framework last June.
Before the start of a hearing of the City Council’s housing committee Wednesday morning, dueling groups on opposing sides of the revived Community Opportunity to Purchase Act hoisted signs and shouted slogans.
Dozens of tenants, organizers, and housing advocates chanted “pass COPA now!” and shared stories of harrowing housing conditions. A few hundred feet away, beyond City Hall Park’s protective barricades, a group of property owners occasionally shouted “unconstitutional!” while holding their own signs.
The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act would give nonprofit groups and community land trusts on New York City’s qualified buyer list the chance to make offers on struggling multi-family buildings when they go up for sale.
COPA’s supporters say it will preserve affordable units in distressed buildings that might otherwise become targets for speculation, leading to the displacement of longtime residents.
Now that the bill has had a committee hearing, it can be scheduled for a committee vote before a vote by the full council. COPA isn’t yet scheduled for a vote, but with 28 co-sponsors, it has the support to pass.
A priority for Mamdani
After former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a previous iteration of the bill, Mayor Zohran Mamdani included COPA in his housing plan as one of his administration’s priorities.
“The fact is, the private market cannot create enough affordable housing to solve this crisis, especially if we’re losing the affordable housing stock we do have faster than we can build,” said Council member Sandy Nurse, who introduced the bill. “This bill is about interrupting a cycle of despair and neglect by design, because many landlords across the city use deterioration as a strategy to get their tenants out,” Nurse said.
Members of the housing committee questioned housing officials about the bill’s details, and tenants and landlords testified about its impact.
In response to questions from Nurse, Levy acknowledged that if COPA does pass, HPD will have to go through the rule-making process to determine how the qualified buyers list is set, make sure there is a notification for the buildings subject to COPA, and establish penalties for noncompliance and notify tenants.
HPD makes about 10 to 20 “preservation deals” with groups on the qualified buyer’s list each year, Levy said. She said COPA would apply to an estimated 2,100 buildings—if those buildings were sold today.
Will Spisak, a senior policy strategist at New Economy Project, said COPA would have applied to about 300 buildings sold last year.
Opposition to COPA
Zach Steinberg, executive vice president for external relations and advocacy at the Real Estate Board of New York, praised legislators for amending this version of the bill so that it applies fewer properties, while also limiting HPD’s ability to extend deadlines and shortening the transaction timeline. Still, REBNY, the leading trade association for the NYC real estate industry, wants to see other changes to the bill.
“COPA remains a significant intervention into private property transactions, and additional revisions are needed to provide certainty for owners, lenders, and affordable housing investors,” Steinberg said. “We urge the council to establish reasonable limits on lawsuits and penalties, clarify the timelines governing the right of first refusal process, and place firm limits on administrative extensions.”
Christopher Athineos, a landlord testifying on behalf of Small Property Owners of New York, took an even stronger stance, saying his organization opposes any version of COPA. He said smaller landlords suffer from compounding problems as lower rents cause deferred repairs and code violations, which then lead to higher legal costs and difficulty refinancing.
“We’re operating in an environment where policies increase the cost of owning and maintaining regulated housing, which can potentially increase the number of buildings that meet the distress criteria to trigger COPA,” Athineos said. “Don’t regulate responsible small property owners into distress and then use that distress as the justification for taking their buildings out of the private market.”
SPONY board member Ilan Rabinovitch expressed the group’s support for a different bill that would allow owners to register their properties with HPD electronically, rather than sending the agency hard copies of documents.
An ‘infuriating lack of concern’
Tenants told the committee about a litany of poor conditions in their buildings and shared stories of learning that their homes had been sold to a new buyer without their knowledge.
Stephanie Thomas, a Bronx resident, said her building at 3435 Giles Pl. had no heat in the winter, an inoperable elevator, frequent leaks, and water damage and roaches and mice.
“What’s most infuriating is the lack of concern by the owner and his sons in response to these allegations,” Thomas said.
Changes to housing lottery process
HPD also informed the housing committee about coming changes to the housing lottery process. In the short term, HPD will be making these changes:
Shortening the lottery period from 60 days to 21 days
Streamlining the income requirements for renters. For example, if you have proof that you receive a SNAP benefit, that will be sufficient to prove you’re income eligible
Clarifying the process for first-time occupancy inspections.
The housing committee meeting also weighed changes to the housing lottery application process. Levy proposed cutting in half the waiting period for Housing Connect to approve lottery applicants, reducing the number of days from 210 to 100.
HPD is also working with the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation to make sure the technical system can keep up with these changes. In the longer term, HPD will take a look at the processing of paper applications, appeals and allowing marketing agents to take applications as they receive them, Levy said.
Summer’s winding down, and if you’ve been thinking about selling, you might be wondering if you missed your chance. Better to wait until next year or even next spring, right?
Not so fast. About one in three of all home sales happen in the last four months of the year.
Fall Is Busier than You Think
Data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows around a third of existing home sales happen in the final four months of the year. And that share has grown every year since 2023 (see graph below):
Here’s What That Means for You
According to forecasts from Fannie Mae, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), NAR, and Wells Fargo, there will be about 4.16 million existing home sales this year. Based on how many sales have happened so far, that means roughly 1.4 million sales are expected between now and December.
That’s about 11,800 houses selling every single day this fall.
So, the market isn’t frozen and you don’t need to put your plans on ice either. Yes, higher rates are keeping some buyers on the sidelines. But hold out for next spring, and you’ll sit out months when other serious buyers are ready to move before the new year.
How do you get in front of those buyers who are still out there looking right now? Getting your house sold this season comes down to how well it’s priced and presented, and that’s where a local agent shines.
A good agent knows what buyers in your area want right now, prices your house to match this fall’s market, and positions it to stand out to the serious buyers shopping before year-end. From the first photo to the final offer, they handle the details that turn your house on the market into one of the 11,800 selling every day.
Bottom Line
Listing this fall doesn’t mean your house will sit on the market until spring. Buyers are out there right now, ready to make a move before the new year – and your window is still open.
To make yours one of the homes that sells this season, connect with a local real estate agent.
Shockingly high asking rents and low inventory likely discouraged many Manhattan and Brooklyn renters from making a move last month.
New lease signings in both boroughs plunged in August, indicating that many chose to renew their leases instead, according to latest edition of The Real Deal Rental Report by Jonathan Miller.
In Manhattan, rents continued to rise at almost double the rate of inflation, Miller said. Median rent increased by 6.5 percent to $4,900 compared to August 2025, the report said, while the U.S. Consumer Price Index inflation rate for August is expected to be 3.6 percent. The result: Renters signing new leases are seeing housing costs eat up a disproportionate share of their income.
However, Manhattan median rent was down 2 percent compared to July, when median rent was $5,000, a record high. But that probably was no consolation since Manhattan listings dropped dramatically last month, limiting options for renters. They were down 45.3 percent compared to the same month last year, the steepest drop in more than three years, Miller’s report said.
Bidding wars for Manhattan rentals
Fierce competition for rentals means some renters will offer to pay more than landlords are asking. More than one in five rentals went for more than the asking rent.
Median rent for luxury apartments in Manhattan was the third-highest on record at $12,823, an increase of 22.1 percent over August 2025, a much high rate than the overall market.
Brooklyn listings fall 34 percent
In Brooklyn, all the ways to measure rents showed increases last month. Median rent was $4,000, reflecting an increase of 1.3 percent from a year ago, but a drop of 11.1 percent from July, when median rent was $4,500, so renters signing new leases caught a small break.
Like the Manhattan market, nearly one in five Brooklyn rentals went for more than the asking rent, Miller said.
Brooklyn listings were down 33.9 percent, limiting options for renters, and lease signings dropped 27.9 percent as a high proportion of renters opted to renew leases and stay in place.
Median rent for luxury Brooklyn rentals, representing the top 10 percent of the market, rose 10.8 percent to $8,200, the report said.
More freebies in August
Along with slightly lower rents, landlords sweetened leases a little more in August. Nearly 17 percent of August listings came with a concession, compared to 9.7 percent the month before, according to a New York City rental market report from apartment listings and review platform openigloo.
The report also offers snapshots of open violations, renewals above the Good Cause rent threshold, and tenant ratings in addition to citywide median rent trends.
In August, a typical concession was $482 monthly, worth about $5,784 across a 12-month lease. Across the city, the typical concession was equivalent to one month’s free rent for a 12-month lease. Concessions were more generous in Brooklyn, where the free-rent equivalent was 1.7 months, the openigloo report said.
However, for buildings protected by Good Cause eviction law, there were fewer incentives. In Good Cause buildings, just 8.3 percent of August 2026 listings advertised a concession versus 28.7 percent for non-Good Cause buildings.
The analysis found that most tenants subject to Good Cause and rent stabilization received compliant lease renewals. But some renters are still reporting rent increases that exceed permitted limits.
Nearly 80 percent of August 2026 renewals in Good Cause buildings were for rent increases below 8.79 percent (the Good Cause standard) and 94 percent of stabilized renewals in August were for rent increases below 5 percent, the report said.
Manhattan vacancy rate sees seven-year low
Corcoran also released Manhattan and Brooklyn rental reports for August, which noted that even though Manhattan rents took a “slight breather” from their July high, rents remain 7 percent above where they stood a year ago.
Active [Manhattan] listings fell to their lowest August level in eight years, while the vacancy rate dropped to just 1.51 percent, its lowest point since 2019, noted Gary Malin, chief operating officer at Corcoran.
“With so few apartments available, renters remain locked in an intensely competitive environment where available inventory commands premium pricing,” Malin said.
Brooklyn’s decline in active listings limited options for apartment seekers and contributed to a drop in signed leases. With limited availabilities, rents climbed. In August, the average rent for a Brooklyn one-bedroom apartment reached an all-time high of $4,357, an 8 percent annual gain that outpaced other unit types, as per Corcoran.
If your lease is up for renewal, your landlord has likely told you that your rent is going up. In New York City’s highly competitive rental market, landlords typically try to bring current tenants’ rent in line with what new ones would pay, especially if the market has shifted since you last signed a lease.
The good news: New York’sGood Cause eviction law gives many market-rate renters the right to challenge a rent increase above the local rent standard of 5 percent plus the area’s Consumer Price Index, capped at 10 percent. For 2026, that works out to be to 8.38 percent.
And NYC’s broker fee law—which requires landlords to pay the brokers they hire—may make some owners more open to favorable renewal terms. (More on that in “FARE Act takes effect.”)
Even without those protections, staying polite and pointing to your record as a reliable tenant can go a long way, though don’t expect a corporate-managed building to budge on a rent increase.
“Words matter, so using the right language and mindset is critical,” said Jules Garcia, a broker at Coldwell Banker Warburg. “Thinking mainly in terms of ‘leverage’ could influence a mindset of a battle versus a constructive conversation, making any negotiation not as fruitful.”
[Editor’s note: A previous version of this article was published in March 2025. We are presenting it with updated information for September 2026.]
What’s more, before you push back on an increase, it’s worth weighing the real cost of moving—including hiring movers, new security deposit, possible broker’s fee—against staying put, especially if you plan to be in NYC a while and like where you live.
And if you’re tempted to keep paying your old rent without signing a new lease, so long as the landlord accepts your payments, this can turn you into a more flexible month-to-month tenant, but you’ll lose lease protections and could face eviction on short notice if the landlord wants you out.
Here’s what to know about negotiating a rent increase at lease renewal time.
1. Understand how market-rate units work
As the name suggests, market-rate tenants are subject to supply-and-demand forces. When it’s time to renew, landlords can generally raise rents within the bounds of what renters are willing to pay, with the exception of buildings covered by Good Cause eviction law that now caps rent increases for some market-rate apartments at 8.38 percent. Your landlord is supposed to inform you if your building is covered by Good Cause, but you can check for yourself.
Demand also drives the rent increase. When more renters are competing for units, landlords are less inclined to offer good deals on renewals. In slower markets, they’re more motivated to limit increases—or even provide incentives to renew.
Rent-stabilized apartments work differently: The Rent Guidelines Board sets limits on rent increases, and in a historic vote this summer, the board froze rent increases for both one- and two-year leases commencing October 1st, 2026, through September 30th, 2027. (Just be aware there is a pending lawsuit to try to reverse that decision.)
Bottom line for market-rate tenants: While owners may consider a reasonable offer from a current, reliable tenant, they also know they may be able to rent the unit to an incoming tenant for more.
Brick Underground’s
Gross Rent Calculator
Some New York City landlords offer a free month (or more) at the beginning or end of a lease. The advertised rent is the net effective rent. The net effective rent is less than the amount you will actually have to pay — known as your gross rent — during your non-free months.
Brick Underground’s Gross Rent Calculator enables you to easily calculate your gross rent, make quick apples-to-apples comparisons between apartments and avoid expensive surprises. All you’ll need to figure out your gross rent is 1) the net effective rent, 2) the length of your lease, and 3) how many free months your landlord is offering. [Hint: Bookmark this page for easy reference!]
Still, many landlords prefer keeping a tenant in place over finding a new one, since turnover can be costly—particularly if renovations or updates are needed before relisting.
“Some landlords do not want to deal with a lost month of vacancy plus doing any painting, cleaning, and repairs,” said Scotty Elyanow, a broker at Compass.
Ashley Reidy Quinn, an agent at Coldwell Banker Warburg, has seen this play out directly. “Landlords value a great, hassle-free tenant—someone who consistently pays rent on time, follows all building rules, and takes care of the home as if it were their own,” she said. In these cases, she said they are much more willing to be flexible during a lease renegotiation, offering favorable and, in some cases, below-market increases and/or terms.
How much that works in your favor depends on the type of landlord you have. Some larger buildings and management companies use software that sets rental rates according to real-time market conditions, seasonal trends, competitor prices, and other metrics—leaving less room for a personal appeal.
Those analytics programs can be expensive for smaller landlords, and a vacancy hurts them more, so they tend to rely more on a gut check. Even more so if you rent an apartment in a private house, where the owner might prioritize having a respectful, quiet tenant who pays the rent on time.
Either way, it’s worth making your case. Elyanow suggested writing a friendly letter to your managing agent or landlord explaining your spotless track record. You might even appeal to their “better angels,” he said, by describing how much you love your apartment and building and how long you’d like to stay.
3. Ask politely—and early
Be respectful when approaching your lease renewal and negotiating against an increase or for a reduction. And don’t wait until the last minute.
Tenant attorney Sam Himmelstein, a former partner at Himmelstein Gribben & Joseph (now retired), advised tenants to say, “I’d like to renew at the same rent,” and see how the landlord responds.
Some landlords may not budge, but many will, Elyanow said. “Keep trying to negotiate with the landlord and know when your deadline is to respond to any final renewal.”
Garcia encouraged being proactive, bringing up the lease renewal before the landlord does. “You don’t have to share all of your plans just yet. You are just starting the conversation to determine the odds of a lower rent increase. It’s better to know early so you can start your search for a new place and plan ahead.”
Reidy Quinn recommended reaching out about two months before a 12-month lease expires—early enough to discuss the apartment, renewal terms, and any other details, and make a gesture that shows the tenant respects everyone’s time.
“Ultimately, an honest and transparent conversation is always worthwhile between a landlord and tenant,” she said. “Tone matters, and the goal should never be to come across as threatening or pushy, but to try to make sure everyone understands the other’s perspective.”
4. Do your research
If you’re presented with a rent increase, it pays to check what similar-sized apartments are renting for in the neighborhood on real estate listing and brokerage sites. Back your argument with real numbers.
“If the current market rate for a similar apartment is much higher and your increase is not at that rate, don’t get greedy,” Garcia said. He also advised against using a common (though often debunked) approach to “splitting the difference” in calculating the lower rent. “Use the data to determine where your negotiability exists, if any.”
Reidy Quinn suggested going a step further: “I think tenants should call landlords to thank them and tell them they’d like to stay in the home,” she said. Then present the landlord with the actual costs of putting the unit back on the market, including professional cleaning and painting, new application fees, and potentially a landlord-paid broker’s fee—all of which can add up quickly and may exceed what the landlord initially anticipated, she noted.
If you have hit a rough patch, according to Catharine Grad, a tenant attorney at Himmelstein Gribben & Joseph, telling your landlord that you’ve lost your job isn’t the best strategy. Think instead about how you can make the best case for yourself. “Tenants need to figure out what they have to give,” she said. That might mean offering to keep paying at the same rate, but not more.
5. Talk to your neighbors
Snoop around in your building to see what other renters have done. Most people are happy to share success stories and “best practices.”
Case in point: Gramercy renter Jennifer C. learned that neighbors in a similar-sized apartment were offered an incentive for starting renewal negotiations early, and she brought it up with her landlord.
“We were not offered that same deal, so I leveraged it,” she said. The end result? She negotiated her rent increase down by nearly 50 percent.
This type of bargaining can also occasionally work for rent-stabilized apartments. One renter said he saw a comparable apartment in his building going for hundreds of dollars less than his rent-stabilized place. He told the landlord he would apply for the other apartment to save money.
“It went back and forth, and eventually, they conceded and gave me the same lower rate,” he said.
Pro Tip:
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6. Make the case for an upgrade—or repairs
In a slow market, if your rent is going up, you might be able to ask the landlord to make a significant replacement or repair. One renter Brick spoke to said he worked with a landlord who didn’t raise the rent the first year but planned to increase it by $150 per month the next. The renter negotiated the hike down to $100 and asked for (and got) a bathroom renovation.
“We were willing to pay more to have something a little nicer,” he said.
What if you have already been asking for repairs to your apartment, to no avail? Absolutely mention that history at lease renewal. While a laundry list of necessary improvements could make for a tense conversation, you can tactfully remind management about ongoing issues—for example, the elevator renovation that took 12 weeks instead of the scheduled four.
It’s also worth considering what improvements the apartment needs for the landlord to secure a higher rent rate, and how long that would take. “Ask yourself how you can make this a win-win situation for the landlord,” Garcia said. “This is a business, and many renters forget that appealing to an owner’s kindness doesn’t help them pay their bills.”
Other factors, according to Garcia, include whether the building is in good shape or has a lot of unresolved/underlying issues you are willing to put up with, but someone else may not be.
Reidy Quinn suggested sweetening the deal more directly, such as by offering to waive the landlord’s obligation to repaint the apartment every three years (costing potentially several thousand dollars). In a condo or co-op sublet, you could offer to cover any lease renewal fees charged by the building’s management company or board. “Any opportunity to help or encourage the landlord to save money… can help sway the overall renewal package in your favor,” she said.
7. Ask for a longer lease
Locking into a longer lease can save you from negotiating all over again 12 months later. Consider this route if you like your apartment and plan to stay in your neighborhood. Not all landlords will be open to giving you a two-year lease, however, or keeping the rent the same for the duration.
Reidy Quinn explained that landlords like 12-month leases, at least to start, as it gives them a chance to test the waters and decide whether they truly want to keep the tenant longer. “If, after a year, things have gone smoothly, I see a lot of landlords open up to two-year renewal terms,” she said.
Per Garcia, however, “A larger landlord will typically still factor a step-up for the second year or bake in a slightly larger increase because you are renewing for two years, while a smaller landlord will likely skip the step-up.”
Another option—if you know you’ll only need to stay, say, 18 months past your renewal—is to negotiate a specific end date. In that case, Garcia suggested asking for a lease term that sunsets when it’s easier for the landlord to secure a higher rent, like in spring or summer instead of winter. Timing is everything.
—Earlier versions of this article contained reporting and writing by Lucy Cohen Blatter, Donna Airoldi, Nikki Mascali, and Emily Myers.
