According to the New York Times, three-quarters of all homes in Manhattan are rental properties and the median income in New York to rent affordable property is $40,000.

Therefore perhaps the New Yorker real estate market should learn something from the booming property market in Dubai and offer furnished apartments to these individuals as a way for landlords to seal the rental deal in New York.  With rentals in New York being slashed all winter long, preserve the rental value of your property by offering it to be interior decorated and styled upon move in.

Let’s do the math here.  Furnishing a studio or one bedroom would be a $5000 or less investment if you purchased modern, contemporary furniture with wide buyer appeal in New York.  A kitchen and bathroom renovation would cost more than that.

According to Coldwell Banker in a February 14^th New York Times article entitled Rent Check, Manhattan Rents Down, Incentives Are Up, “Take a typical one-bedroom walk-up, for example. In September, it rented for an average of $2,512 a month, the firm’s data show, but in October it fell to $2,326, or more than 7 percent. In November there was a further decline of nearly 2 percent, to $2,282, and in December yet another 2 percent slide, to $2,238. Last month, average rents slipped again, according to other firms’ data.”  The price differential is $300 and over 12 months equals $3600, which if you purchased $3600 worth of furniture, that does not have to be just Ikea, you could preserve the rental rate of $2500 for the unit and perhaps even rent out the unit for $2600 – $2750 as a furnished apartment to visitors who come to Manhattan during the winter months looking for better deals at prime location apartments than staying at hotels. Or landlords could rent the furnished apartment to an entry level professional moving to New York who would need to buy new furniture for the apartment anyway.

Let’s face it; students just out of college need new furniture for their apartments.  Or professionals going into there thirties would like to upgrade their post college lifestyle of living.  Of the millennials that live on their own and have a decent paying job, purchasing $3600 worth of furniture is an investment they would have to make anyway.  Paying $300 more a month just to have a New York apartment that is already furnished with contemporary furniture and wide renter appeal would be so much easier.  Copy and paste their college life into their new affordable interior styled New York apartment and they will pay the premium, which isn’t really a premium according to rental prices just 6 months prior.

Therefore home staging, home styling, and interior styling is the way for New York property developers and landlords to go to rent out affordable housing in Manhattan when rents are down and incentives are up.  Hire a home stager and interior re-designer today to mitigate your short-term incentives and turn them into long-term gains.

About Sterling Home Styling

Sterling Home Styling combines image consulting with home staging, interior redesign and interior styling services to provide ‘sterling home styling’ services for residential spaces and new or vacant luxury condominiums, homes or real estate developments in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Dubai. The company offers a broad range of services enabling its clients to realize the true selling potential of their home, improve its marketability, and realize a maximum return on investment.