New York Habitat Blog

Fashion shows are a true New York event. As one of the fashion capitals of the world, New York attracts some of the top designers to show their new clothing lines. Each February and September, shows take place in Bryant Park as well as other locations throughout Manhattan. If you are a designer, model or someone coming to see the shows, staying in an apartment is a good choice. With the hectic schedule, the ability to come home to your apartment at the end of the day allows for some relaxation before the next busy day.

This year the winter 2007 fashion show is occurring for the week of February 2nd to 9th, 2007. Click here to visit the official site of the New York Fashion show, where the entire show schedule is available.

If you are working the fashion show for one of the designers and are looking for accommodations in New York, consider contacting New York Habitat while you are in the city during the show. We can take you to see some of our apartments and arrange for your stay when you return in September.

If you don’t work for a fashion company, but you have decided to make the journey to New York to see one of the fashion shows or the celebrities arriving at the shows, then we can help out with those last minute apartment rental plans. There are several options still available for the week of the show.

Experienced rental agent Marijn finds that one of the most important recommendations that he can offer clients is to keep an open mind in their apartment search.

Looking in other neighborhoods can offer better values
and more space with similar commuting times.

Not only are there great apartments in the popular neighborhoods in Manhattan, there are various interesting offerings in Brooklyn and Queens. Since 2004, Marijn has worked at New York Habitat in the Furnished Rental department and often finds that clients are interested in accommodations in Park Slope Brooklyn, Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Brooklyn and Astoria Queens. The apartment rentals in these neighborhoods represent good value and offer easy subway access to Manhattan. Each of the neighborhoods has a unique feel and offers different attractions.

Overall, many visitors find that they get to truly live like a New Yorker when they venture into a neighborhood outside their original search and most customers who choose one of these locations would and do return to the same neighborhood on their next trip.

So, when searching for an apartment rental in New York, don’t forget about the other boroughs; you may find your dream apartment where you least expected it.

We are about to begin an ongoing Blog series about Apartment Rental Tips from the New York Habitat community. You will hear from the rental agents, listing agents and management about their advice both for people looking to rent an apartment and those looking to list with us. We will include suggestions from members of all of our offices: New York, London, Paris and the South of France.

Each tip will give you a little bit of background about the interviewees’ history with New York Habitat as well as a recommendation that he/she can give based on their experiences.

We hope that you find these tips useful in your search for housing or for clients.

Furthermore, we would like to open up this Apartment Rental Tips category to clients and owners as well. If you have something that you think would be helpful to share, let us know; we would be happy to include either your comments or a Blog entry if you have a suggestion either for clients or owners.

We would also like to hear your feedback on New York Habitat, so if you would like to include a Blog entry about your experiences working with New York Habitat we would be interested to include that as well.  If you would like to submit an entry for consideration, please e-mail us at blog@nyhabitat.com.

The Fort Greene/Clinton Hill areas are some of Brooklyn’s fastest developing neighborhoods because of their unique accessibility to the surrounding areas and desirable selection of apartments that can be found. Subway access to the neighborhood is available via the B,Q,R,M trains at DeKalb Avenue station to the West and via the A,C,G trains to the south.  The neighborhood is also a close walk to Manhattan because of it convenient access to the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. Therefore, renting an apartment in Fort Greene / Clinton Hill area allows for the luxury of more space and quieter neighborhoods while still be close to the offices in Manhattan.

The neighborhood is known for its restaurants from around the world. The main street for restaurants is DeKalb Avenue though restaurants can be found intermixed along the side streets as well. Some of the top restaurant finds in the neighborhood according to the Zagat Restaurant guide include Loulou a French Bistro, Luz specializing in fusion Latin cuisine, Mo-Bay for Caribbean and Zaytoons for Middle Eastern. Also, a short walk from apartments in the neighborhood is the Brooklyn landmark Juniors famous for both its cheeseburgers and cheesecakes. The neighborhood is also close to the Fulton Mall, which includes various retailers including Macy’s and the Atlantic Center, which includes a 24-hour supermarket and Target.

The neighborhood also has Fort Greene Park, which in the summer is ideal for playing tennis, having a BBQ or running on its manicured paths. The park also has a weekly farmers market on Saturdays where you can purchase local fruits, veggies and baked goods.

The neighborhood is dominated by brownstones and townhouses of various sorts though some pre-war high rises and new buildings can be found as well.

Students also find this to be a popular area for housing because of its proximity to Pratt Institute and Long Island University Brooklyn Campus. 

The neighborhood is expected to continue to grow in popularity with the development of the new Atlantic Yards project. The project designed by the renowned architect Frank Gahry, who also designed the Bilbao Museum, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angles and new complex at MIT, is expected to bring the area a new feel with several new high-rise apartment buildings, a new arena for the Nets basketball team and park land as well. As this area develops with the surrounding areas of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill are also expected to see development.

Remember when looking for an apartment to consider the outer boroughs as alternatives to Manhattan. Often you will find larger spaces at more reasonable prices. For those of you who have visited New York City before, staying in a new area opens doors to new restaurants, attractions like the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Brooklyn Museum and a different culture experience more like local New Yorkers experience on a day-to-day basis.

In the December 11th 2006 issue of Forbes magazine they report that building apartment buildings specifically tailored to students can be a wise investment. In addition, offering the apartments furnished can be a good way to boast the rental occupency rates.

Furthermore, since the student population in The United States has grown nearly 20 percent in the past 10 years to 9.5 milion, the need for quality student housing is great. In New York where the housing market is always tight, quality, well located, furnished student housing can be an attractive rental option. Owners that have converted their housing to student housing see several advantages including:

• A relatively high 6% to 7% capitalization rate (1)
• Reliable payment guarantees since parents are often guarentors (1)
• Strong demand for their units as the market continues to grow

New York Habitat is the perfect venue for owners in New York to list their student housing options. With our team of professionals we can help to determine what amenities are needed to make the rental successful and which groups might be most interested in renting the apartments.

In addition to our services in New York our teams in Paris, London and the South of France are well versed in their territories and can be helpful in making your student accommodations profitable. Our relationship with academic institutions through out the world enables us to provide a steady inflow of students interested in finding housing.

(1) Swibel, Matthew. “Dorm Deals.” Forbes. Dec. 11, 2006: 186-188.

New York Habitat is now providing a new version of maps for our website.

With apartment rentals in New York, Paris, London and the South of France it was essential to provide our customers the best tools possible.

The new maps now have the following features, which we think you will enjoy:

Each map has three settings to view by clicking on the choices at the top right corner:

1. Map: Which shows a standard street map
2. Satellite:  Which shows a satellite view of the streets
3. Hybrid: A combined view of both the satellite and street maps

The maps can be zoomed in and out using the + and – buttons

By putting the mouse over the map and clicking on it you can move the position of the map to see surrounding areas

In Paris and London, the subway stations are also included in the maps.

With the increased level of interactivity, these maps allow you to see more about the area the apartment is located in and a greater level of detail of streets that are nearby.

To provide security for the apartment owners we do not release the exact address of the apartment. Instead, we show a blue circle within which the apartment is located.

As always when looking for furnished accommodations, New York Habitat provided its owners and clients with the latest technological advancements all to make the job of fining a great furnished apartment that much easier.

Inman Real Estate Connect NYC: Working with other brokers a key to success

This week New York Habitat visited the Inman Real Estate Connect NYC conference to learn about trends in the Real Estate industry and to meet other Real Estate Professionals.

One important topic, which was discussed at Inman Real Estate Connect NYC, was the importance of working with other brokers and other Real Estate Professionals. New York Habitat understands the importance of working together in New York’s dynamic market because you never know who will have the right apartment for a specific client or who might have the right client for your apartment. We pride ourselves on providing the best possible service to our clients; therefore utilizing every possible method of reaching this goal is of importance to us.

New York Habitat is eager to work with other agents and brokers on connections that are mutually beneficial. As leaders in real estate technology, we have developed several tools, which can be useful for finding clients and apartments to meet the needs of other agencies.

During our 18 years of experience we have found that working with other agencies is not only beneficial for the other agencies, but also for our owners and our clients.

We are happy to share these tools with brokers, salespeople and other real estate professionals. If you would like to become a partner in The New York Habitat Real Estate Professionals network please contact us at (212) 255-8018 or partner@nyhabitat.com for more details.

As usual this conference was insightful into market trends and gave us a prospective on the actions in the broader market. We look forward to attending the Inman Connect Conference in 2008.