NYC Apartment Leasing Slides, With Potential for Rent Cuts Seen

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
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Apartment leasing plummeted in New York City last month -- and why wouldn’t it? It was almost impossible to move.

Most businesses were shuttered from mid-March on and the state imposed social-distancing rules to limit the spread of Covid-19, effectively outlawing in-person home showings. As a result, new leases in Manhattan tumbled 71% in April from a year earlier, appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a report Thursday.