At $5,250 a month, a one-bedroom apartment at Manhattan’s Trump Tower comes with a lot of extras: a month of free rent, beefed-up security in the lobby and the ability to say you share a home address with the U.S. president.
It’s the cheapest entry point into the Midtown skyscraper that President Donald Trump built more than three decades ago and made the crown jewel of his real estate portfolio. But the unit at Trump Tower is facing the same challenges as the rest of New York’s luxury-apartment market, and the asking rent has been cut 30 percent since it was first listed in June.
“There’s a lot of competition, and you have a lot of choices,” said Hon Sing Kevin Tsun, the Citi Habitats broker who’s marketing the 1,052-square-foot (97-square-meter) home on the 35th floor.
It’s difficult listing a luxury apartment in Manhattan these days, and it’s no different for the building that carries the prestige of being the northern White House. A construction boom that added thousands of high-end condominiums to the market has created competition from wealthy investors trying to rent out their units. At Trump Tower, potential tenants also have to weigh dealing with protesters, metal barriers and the Secret Service.
In Midtown, where new condo towers have proliferated, 42 percent of the 914 luxury apartments on the market for rent last month have had their prices cut, according to an analysis by StreetEasy. The property-listings website defines luxury as the top 20 percent of units by price.
The statistics are similar for Trump Tower, the full-time residence of First Lady Melania Trump and the couple’s son, Barron, until at least the end of the school year. Of the 16 condo units listed for rent there in December, seven had lowered their asking price, StreetEasy data show. The median asking rent for units listed for lease was $8,000, about 5.9 percent less than what owners were seeking a year earlier.
The rent decline is in line with the drop in all Manhattan luxury apartments, according to data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
Tenant Options
“The luxury-rental market has definitely seen a little bit of a slowdown,” said Gary Malin, president of Citi Habitats. “From a client’s perspective, whether it’s Trump Tower or not, it’s a matter of value: what are you getting and how does this stack up? They have options and they want what’s easy on their lifestyle.”
See Also: NYC Apartment Pricing Study from Bloomberg Intelligence