This weekend I was told by a long term tenant in Avalon South, that they recently received a 25% rent renewal hike. While this was an atypically high boost, a few quick checks with others revealed increases in the range of 6-7% for Avalon tenants, in line with what other landlords, aka Rockstone, on Center Boulevard are doing. Nevertheless, in tandem with building gripes I’ve been hearing about from numerous tenants, it reveals the clumsy, formulaic decision-making of a national landlord. If Avalon Bay is holding back on capital expenditures at a time when rents nationwide are at their peak, I can only imagine what will happen to these buildings when a downturn occurs.
Since Avalon owns only two buildings in LIC, what might be of greater significance to all renters on the waterfront, is the resumption of not insignificant rate hikes for exactly the reason we predicted in our 2014 Real Estate of the Union back in May:
“the waterfront has one final market-rate building left to fill, after which there will be no more supply for at least half a decade. When that is completed, say by year-end, rents will resume their increases on Center Boulevard.”
What’s ironic is that cobbled together all the Avalon news only one day after the deadline for the Hunters Point South lottery. Who knows what would have happened to rental prices along Center Boulevard had the two new HPS buildings not been “affordable” housing? Oh wait, I did, way back in 2013.
A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of Construction at HPS – just look at what you can’t have
Pete Wells Follows the Kimchi Trail in Queens – it’s all about Queens in 2015!
Queens Industrial Properties Values Jump 60% in One Year – it’s all about Queens in 2015
kc says
December 16, 2014 at 10:54 pmWe just moved to a TFC building a locked in a two-year lease with no increase the second year. Our rent increases in our three years in Avalon North were 10-14% each year, with no option to sign a longer lease. We liked the pool (and that circular driveway was damn useful), but honestly the management was a bit of a disaster, and the elevators were THE WORST. TFC has been much better so far.