Manhattan apartment rents down as much as 18% in second quarter

Tenants are pressing hard for rent discounts in the troubled Manhattan apartment market and they are getting them, said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel. Rents have dropped as much as 18% in the second quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier, he said. "Unemployment has had a much more immediate impact on the rental market than the purchase market," Miller said. Bloomberg (07/09) ClipSyndicate (07/09)

Rich Russians Returning to U.S. Property Lured by Lower Prices

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Russian millionaires are returning to the U.S. property market, lured by distressed sales and the ruble’s rise against the dollar, lawyer Edward Mermelstein said.

“The way many look at the U.S. right now is that it’s a bargain,” said Mermelstein, who has arranged about 300 real estate deals for buyers from the former Soviet Union since 2007.

Mermelstein, 41, closed two purchases and bid for 20 more residential and commercial properties in New York and Miami for Russian and central Asia clients in the past three months, he said. That compares with no deals or offers in January, he said.

Manhattan taking office rents off 40% in 2Q

Manhattan office taking rents have fallen by as much as 40 percent from the second quarter of 2008 to the same period in 2009, commercial real estate firm FirstService Williams says in a new report issued today.

While the survey showed average asking rents in Manhattan were down 26 percent quarter-over-quarter, to $58.52 per square foot from $79.39 per square foot, the taking rent fell even more.

"Our measures of taking rents indicate that the average may be down in the range of 35 percent to 40 percent over nearly the same time period," the report says.

The Plaza Stirs

FEW developments rode the wave of high prices in the Manhattan residential real estate the way the 181 condominium apartments at the Plaza Hotel did, and few have chilled as much in the downturn.

As it happened, the financial panic on Wall Street last September came just as the Plaza, the city’s most expensive condominium conversion ever, per square foot, was hit by a wave of bad publicity.

There were complaints that the finishes and details did not live up to the building’s luxurious image. A lawsuit by a Russian billionaire who signed up for a $53.5 million penthouse alleged “bait and switch” tactics. The suit and a countersuit by the Plaza were later settled.