So many of the vacant rent-regulated apartments in NYC look like this.
Another episode of “you have no idea how common this is.”
This apartment just became vacant after 61 years of single-renter occupancy.
61 years.
Three bedroom, two bath in the heart of Brooklyn. The rent? $1,468.45.
Comparable units in the building across the street start at $3,200.
Why does that matter? Because this unit will be cleaned out and never rented again.
The current rent will not cover a gut renovation: lead abatement, new wiring, new plumbing, new flooring and fixtures. At $1,468 a month, the owner wouldn’t recoup the cost for decades.
So it will sit empty until its $220,000 renovation is subsidized, or, more logically, until the owner is no longer forced to hand the next renter the same below-market rent despite 61 years of cost inflation.