{"id":2003,"date":"2015-05-31T01:18:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T05:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/?p=2003"},"modified":"2023-07-22T11:38:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T15:38:08","slug":"the-price-of-convenience-for-manhattan-apartment-hunters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/the-price-of-convenience-for-manhattan-apartment-hunters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Price of Convenience for Manhattan Apartment Hunters"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the tight inventory of New York City apartments<\/a>, the scramble to find that perfect unit (at a reasonable price) is daunting. However, before you start scouring online, take some time to think about your future roommates. Even though there is a \u201cconvenience premium\u201d on most apartment features, this price of convenience is significantly higher for larger apartments (think two bedrooms) than for smaller apartments.<\/p>\n

It turns out that satisfying a group of three or four people is significantly harder than compromising with a single roommate. Some people might absolutely need laundry in the building. Other people could care less. Because of these disagreements, many of the more \u201cinconvenient\u201d apartments don\u2019t receive as much exposure or demand.<\/p>\n

The Roommate Premium<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s commonly known that studios<\/a> are among the most expensive apartments on a per-square-foot basis (around 10% more) in the city. However, even though one<\/a> and two-bedroom apartments<\/a> are similarly priced for their size, there is a larger \u201cconvenience\u201d premium in two-bedrooms. Taking advantage of this, what can renters expect to get paid for, and what kind of discounts could they see? We\u2019ve taken a look at three different areas of potential value.<\/p>\n

The Number of Flights<\/h2>\n

One major point of inconvenience for a walkup is certainly the number of flights to the apartment. When taking a look across Manhattan<\/a>, we see a fairly persistent trend across all apartments relative to the floor. While the first floor is generally cheaper than the second or third floors (because of the lack of privacy on the ground floor), the highest floors (ie, 4th<\/sup> floor+) are even cheaper. For studios and one-bedrooms, this effect is relatively small. For two bedrooms, though, there could be a real bargain. Because of the difficulty of finding three people willing to trek up four floors, we see a discount of around 12% for two-bedroom walkups on the 4th<\/sup> floor. This can amount to roughly $400 in savings on rent (or $130\/person, if three people were living there).<\/p>\n

\"Price<\/a><\/p>\n

Overall, two-bedroom apartments on the first floor are the most expensive (relatively). For studios and one-bedrooms, the third floor is most expensive.<\/p>\n

Laundry Unit in Building<\/h2>\n

Another point of major contention could be having a laundry in the building. Some people absolutely need it, while others are happy sending their laundry down to the local cleaners. As a result, many apartments without laundry in building might not get the same \u201clooks\u201d from renters who are trying to satisfy the entire group. We see that even though the laundry premium less clear for studios and one-bedroom apartments (satisfying one or two people is significantly easier than three), the effect is sizable for two-bedroom apartments. In fact, we see a premium of around 10 to 20% (depending on location) for laundry in building. This could roughly equate to $300 to $600 dollars per month.<\/p>\n

\"Laundry<\/a><\/p>\n

Learn more:<\/p>\n