Latest news with #apartmenthunting
CBC
8 hours ago
- Business
- CBC
Developers aim to create vibrant new communities in old buildings
Claire Taylor just moved to Saint John to get ready for her first year at the University of New Brunswick this fall, and she has the exuberance that comes with new experiences. It's her first time away from Newfoundland and Labrador, and she already loves Saint John. "Holy cow, I can see the sun," she said about a recent clear day. "It's beautiful here." She's good-humoured about the fog, which she encountered her first night in town. "All the cars are going slow, and I'm like guys, I'm a bayman. Follow me, and I got out in front of them all. I'm good at driving in fog." She also found a job right away. The one thing that slowed her down was finding an apartment. " Nothing was in the price range," she said. 'Nothing was a good fit." Then she and her boyfriend found a place near St. Joseph's Hospital, in a renovated, 25-unit building that's phase one of the Hospital Hill Development. The average rent is $1,600, including heat, lights and parking. It also has new appliances. "This is beautiful and the views are amazing," Taylor said. "It's like the best thing that's ever happened to me." WATCH | 'This is the perfect, perfect price': How these developers are resurrecting old buildings 4 hours ago Duration 4:13 Developers Michael Wowchuk and Deanna Adams see opportunities in converting former office buildings and churches into apartments for the 'missing middle' rental market in Saint John. All this in a three-storey building that until recently sat empty, beside a vacant site once home to the city's largest hospital. It used to be Red Cross offices, then administration offices for the Catholic church Diocese of Saint John. "I just kind of fell upon this place," developer Michael Wowchuk said. "I just noticed it was for sale and I'm like, 'Why isn't anyone buying this site?'" To address housing shortages, local developers are doing a lot of new builds in the city centre. Others, like Wowchuk, are repurposing and renovating existing buildings no longer occupied. "These are challenging times," he said. "The top end of the market is, I would say, saturated. For this area, we want to look at [what's] affordable, and we want to look at addressing the 'missing middle,' as I call it, people who are working but they can't afford a home, they can't afford $2,000-plus a month in rent." He said creating housing in unlikely spaces can be cheaper than building new, and the savings can mean lower rents. "Buying an existing building helped us because we already had the bones, we already had the structure," he said. "All we had to do was [demolish the inside] and then rebuild." Wowchuk originally thought his target market would be seniors because St. Joseph's was nearby. He still plans to set aside five subsidized units for seniors, with an office in the building for their support workers. But now that the units are for rent, it's mostly young people like Taylor showing interest. "One of the mainstay demands is 20-year-olds looking for a place to live, and it's close to uptown," he said. "That's how it works, right? You pivot with the market. There will still be seniors here and maybe it's going to be half-and-half, but that younger demographic really wanted it." In the north end, Ontario-based developer Deanna Adams recently received approval for a zoning change that would allow her to turn a former church into apartments. The three-storey wood structure operated as a church for more than 100 years. It was a hub of community activity, a spirit Adams wanted to honour. "Although that original purpose may no longer be true or valid in today's world, I'd like to find a way to bring them back to life and make them relevant again," Adams said. "The satisfaction that you get from seeing a building that looked like it was in despair come back to life and see people living in it and being happy and proud about where they're living … is very rewarding and addictive." Adams said the building will have up to 18 apartments — a mix of bachelor, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units — after renovations and a three-storey addition. "When I walked into the church, I saw an amazing structure, a clear-span structure. There's no support structure within. … What it means is that it was well built from the beginning. There are no sags in the floors, no creeks, no squeaks. It's solid." There are advantages to working with a wood structure over stone or brick, she said. It's easier to move windows, which you need to do when converting a building from a church to apartments. It's also easier to find local labourers with experience working on wood structures. Whether it's a new build or a renovated older building, renters like Bobola Adanikan appreciate the sense of "newness" about the places. Adanikin, who moved to Saint John from Nigeria two years ago to attend New Brunswick Community College, recently moved into Wowchuk's building and likes the renovations and the new appliances. He also likes the tech features. Wowchuk is going to enable facial recognition technology to gain entry to the building, for those who want that feature. In partnership with NBCC and the Université de Moncton, Wowchuk is developing a robot that will carry garbage from people's apartments for disposal and deliver packages to a tenant's door. "The security, the fresh paint, there's this feeling of peace in this building," Adanikin said. Like Adams, Wowchuk was partly inspired by the idea of reanimating what was once a hub of activity. The old Saint John General Hospital had a commanding presence on a hill overlooking the Mount Pleasant and Rockwood Park areas. "Frankly, I was not really pleased with what the landscape had turned into along the hill," he said. "There was no great building that replaced the old General." The Hospital Hill Development, will eventually include two more buildings and a landscaped pedestrian walkway and green space to connect all three.
ABC News
24-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Why first-home buyer FOMO is set to go into overdrive: and it's not just about the rate cut
Jason Martin has been searching since November for an apartment in the northern suburbs of Sydney near his daughter's school. He wants a two-bedroom place in Epping, but with many exceeding his $800,000 budget, he knows he'll need to compromise. This might mean choosing a property with building defects or opting for a one-bedroom apartment with a study area that fits a bed. But he's struggling to find something he really likes in his price range. "I always thought I'd buy something that I'd fallen in love with. But I haven't found anything worth fighting for," he told the ABC. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has cut the cash rate again, bringing it down to 3.85 per cent — the lowest in two years — with future rate cuts on the cards. Lower interest rates enhance buyers' borrowing capacity, spark buyer activity, fuel competition, and drive up home prices, which are already at record highs. In April, Australia's median home price reached a new record of $805,000, according to PropTrack. Mr Martin is aware his mission has become harder. "Interest rate cuts benefit existing mortgage holders, but for first-time buyers, they raise property prices. The last RBA rate cut seemed to increase some prices by $40,000." Broker Alya Manji from Aussie Home Loans Hurstville said there's roughly "an eight-week window" to buy after a rate cut before its effects hit the market. "If you don't act within that time, it gets tougher," she said. She said a 0.25 per cent rate cut could increase someone's borrowing power by $10,000 to $25,000 on a $500,000 loan. But at the same time, house prices could move by that same amount or more. Nicola Powell, Domain's chief of research and economics, said a downward rate cycle and persistent housing shortages would keep driving property prices up. "A rate cut prompts buyers to act quickly, fearing further price increases. "Buyer inquiry volumes are up year-on-year in all of our capital cities," Dr Powell said. Senior economist at REA Group Eleanor Creagh agreed two rate cuts this year and the prospect of more would boost demand — and therefore prices — when there aren't enough homes to go around. "In terms of housing supply, we've still got constraints on the delivery of new homes, particularly in major capitals." Rate cuts and housing shortages aren't the only factors driving buyer FOMO. The Labor government's election win means its First Home Guarantee scheme will be extended to allow a larger pool of buyers to purchase with as little as a 5 per cent deposit, without Lenders Mortgage Insurance, from July 1. While this helps more first-home buyers, it intensifies competition. Meg Elkins, a behavioural economist at RMIT, said supporting first-time buyers while not propping up prices artificially "is a very difficult balancing act". "We know that if you increase subsidies around housing, it can increase capacity around borrowing and push up those prices." Dr Elkins added that millennial first-home buyers were also feeling external pressures to reach life milestones. "Many millennials feel they should own property by 30," she said. "And they're facing the toughest purchasing conditions in history, with high interest rates, living costs and student debt combined with stagnant wage growth. "They're so badly done by." If those conditions weren't tough enough for buyers, the market has become swamped with buyers' agents, who "can easily outplay regular bidders", Ms Manji said. Buyers' agents often have close ties with agents, and they know how to negotiate. Plus, they've significantly enlarged the buyer pool by acting on the ground for remote clients. "Buyers are now facing competition from people across Australia and beyond," Ms Manji said. It's not all doom and gloom. The prospect of higher prices following another rate cut could entice more people to list their properties for sale, boosting supply. Another factor restraining price growth is, of course, affordability. The Housing Industry Association reported affordability was at a 30-year low in the second half of last year. "I think we're all a bit scared after the cash rate hikes, cost of living pressures and wages growth that hasn't kept up with price growth," Dr Powell said. Dr Elkins suggested researching available government grants, enlisting the help of a buyer's agent, or considering that dreaded word among buyers: compromise. "You may not get exactly what you want. So what are you willing to give up to get closer to your ideal?" Mr Martin isn't prepared to compromise on location or buy a property he dislikes — and he knows that comes with consequences. "There is definitely a FOMO because the prices will rise, potentially pricing me out," he said. "It's very frustrating. If this goes on for another few months, I'll be locked out of the market."
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
For These New Yorkers, Brutal Apartment Hunts Make Good Content
The fourth apartment Heather Maldonado tours in her YouTube video is a sleek Manhattan studio renting for $3,350 a month, with big windows but no standard stovetop or full-size fridge. The next, for $3,500, feels a little more New York, with crown molding and nine-foot ceilings, until a turn into the bathroom reveals what appears to be a rusty, leaking pipe. Then there is the penthouse on the 22nd floor of a converted old hotel. Ms. Maldonado, 29, can be seen stepping onto gorgeous parquet hardwood floors and peering out from a balcony with a clear view of the Empire State Building. Could this be her new home? 'Guys, this was $5,000,' she tells viewers. 'Over $5,000.' That was almost twice her budget. The arduous process of finding an apartment in New York City, in the throes of the worst housing crisis in decades, is familiar to residents. The share of apartments that are available to rent is at a nearly 60-year low, and the typical asking rent was $3,850 in April, according to the listing site StreetEasy, the highest figure the company had ever recorded. But on YouTube, apartment hunting has become something of a phenomenon, with creators like Ms. Maldonado documenting their personal searches and tapping into a global fascination with what it's like to live in New York City. 'Whereas traditional real estate shows often stick to showing luxury homes, creators are providing a more realistic view of what so many New Yorkers face,' said Maddy Buxton, YouTube's culture and trends manager. She called the creators 'must-watch' tour guides. The videos often have a similar structure: Creators will go through one apartment at a time, describing and debating prices, amenities, views, the likelihood of pests, nearby shops and parks and other details. Some people watch the videos during their own apartment hunts. Many see them as entertainment that captures New York City's quirks and frustrations — a majority of viewers, Ms. Maldonado said, live elsewhere. One person who commented on one of Ms. Maldonado's recent videos said apartment hunting in New York should be an Olympic sport. Some seem to be living vicariously through the creators, imagining themselves living in the city or reminiscing about their own youth. And for a few, it's about the schadenfreude. Another commenter, bragging that they were watching the video from a 2,400-square-foot home in North Carolina, said New York apartments looked 'so tiny' in comparison. Ms. Maldonado grew up in Texas. In 2023, she visited New York City for the first time and felt drawn to its vibrancy. Last year, she decided to move here. Ms. Maldonado, who worked in marketing, had already been posting videos about lifestyle and fitness and had hopes of making content creation a full-time job. She immediately discovered that the city's housing market felt like 'cutthroat Hunger Games,' she said in a video. She found that apartments flew off the market before she had a chance to see them. Monthly rents could be more than $3,000 for units smaller than a Texas kitchen. Laundry machines and air-conditioning, she discovered, were far from guaranteed. Rental applications, she found, required a mind-numbing quantity of bank statements and tax forms. She recounted all of these experiences in her first apartment hunt video in August, with the hope that it would benefit others hoping to move. The video quickly became one of her most popular and lucrative posts. Ms. Maldonado said the video, which had about 63,000 views as of mid-May, had generated some $550 for her so far, compared with about $22 for a typical lifestyle-focused video. She also earns money on other platforms and through sponsorships. She made another video this year to document her search, which has over 99,000 views. Today, she supports herself by making videos full time. 'The relatability of being a YouTuber is to say, 'Hey I'm one of you, and this is also what I've gone through,' Ms. Maldonado said in an interview. The popularity of the videos is why Alexis Eldredge, 27, decided to make one in 2021. Ms. Eldredge, who has nearly 78,000 subscribers, has now had to move three times. She has made videos for each grueling hunt. She declined to comment specifically on how much she earned from each. But she said they were top performers based on views and revenue. She noted that she had only 1,000 subscribers when she made her first video, which garnered 100,000 views and sharply increased her following. Moving has been 'good for the channel, and good for growth,' she said. 'But bad for my mental health.' Ms. Eldredge, originally from Ohio, studied musical theater and hopes to be on Broadway. During her first four years in the city from 2015 to 2019, when she was a student at a college on Staten Island, she lived in a dormitory and 'never had to deal with apartment hunting,' she said. But since she graduated and moved to Washington Heights, her experience has encapsulated many of the frustrations of apartment hunting. The first apartment, which she shared with three roommates, had mice. She left another place, which cost her $2,115 even with two roommates, after the landlord raised the total rent by $500. She now lives with one roommate on the Upper West Side and pays $2,050, and can fully support herself by making content. 'I feel like New York housing is almost like a secret,' she said. 'You don't really know what it's like until you know what it's like.' And for many creators, the videos are compelling because they tap into international curiosity about the city as a place of opportunity. 'New York has always been this American dream,' said Alia Zaita, 25, whose family moved to Seattle from Romania when she was 12. Ms. Zaita, who has 635,000 subscribers on YouTube, said most of her viewers were from other countries. She spent six years in Toronto working as a professional ballerina, and then moved back to Seattle, where she met her husband. She started making YouTube videos about five years ago. Ms. Zaita was a fan of apartment hunt series. She had watched several based in Tokyo, Paris and elsewhere, and had even made some during her hunts in Seattle. So when she and her then-partner found they were 'really craving that European density of a city,' she began watching videos about New York City apartment hunts. In 2023, they moved into their first New York apartment, a fourth-floor one-bedroom in NoLIta with a rent around $3,300. Her first video about the hunt immediately drew interest from people around the world, eventually accruing 440,000 views and earning Ms. Zaita about $4,000. One commenter, who said they were an 18-year-old student from Germany, lamented that they would most likely never be able to live in New York City. The next year, when their lease was up, Ms. Zaita and her husband decided they wanted a bigger space. They looked for a two-bedroom apartment under $4,000, where one of the rooms could double as a video studio for Ms. Zaita. They went on another hunt, eventually picking a place they liked near Downtown Brooklyn. Now, 'we have no reason to move,' she said. 'I'm like, I'm going to miss out on the engagement.'
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NYC renters built a website to help them triumph over landlords trying to hide rent-stabilized apartments
Some New York City landlords try to hide their rent-stabilized units to make more money. Two frustrated renters wanted to make the availability of stabilized units in NYC more transparent. Their new website, RentReboot, alerts users when rent-stabilized apartments are listed on the market. In February 2024, Ilias Miraoui devised a plan to navigate the hellscape that is apartment hunting in New York City. The 28-year-old data scientist would populate one browser tab with StreetEasy, the popular Zillow-owned site that has the most comprehensive collection of NYC rental listings. In another tab, Miraoui pulled up the city's official list of buildings with rent-stabilized apartments, which are often cheaper because their monthly rent increases have been capped since 1969. The system worked. He scored a one-bedroom rent-stabilized apartment on the Lower East Side for $2,400 a month. Based on the rents of similar but market-rate units he toured, Miraoui estimates he's saved about $600 a month since he moved in. This process should be easier for everyone, he thought. So Miraoui teamed up with software developer Adam Sebti, 30, to launch RentReboot, a new website that alerts users when buildings on the rent-stabilized list have new listings on StreetEasy. "The idea is to show that information and make it more public," Sebti said. "So everyone can have a chance." RentReboot users enter what they're looking for in an apartment, including budget, number of bedrooms, preferred neighborhoods, and building amenities like an elevator or doorman. They receive two emails or texts each day summarizing new listings that fit their criteria for free. For $12 a month, users can get real-time email alerts and three texts a day with their best matches. For $20 a month, users get unlimited texts and first access to any new tools. The duo said they had 20,000 signups in the two weeks after launching the website in mid-April. Renters see these diamond-in-the-rough apartments as a saving grace in one of the country's most expensive housing markets. Citing recent city data, The New York Times reported in April that the typical monthly rent for a market-rate unit is around $2,000, but it's only $1,500 for a rent-stabilized unit. In February, the median asking price for NYC rentals was $3,645, 2.6% more than the year before, according to StreetEasy. A committee approves annual increases for stabilized units, which can be a maximum of 2.75% on a one-year lease and 5.25% on a two-year lease. Data from the City of New York shows that, as of 2023 — the most recent year with available data — there were about 2.3 million renter-occupied units in NYC. According to the Rent Guidelines Board, the group that sets and monitors rent increases for stabilized units, only about 1 million of those apartments are rent-stabilized. For many New Yorkers, finding a rent-stabilized apartment is like discovering the Holy Grail — and just as difficult to secure. In 2019, New York City repealed a former rule that allowed landlords to raise rents 20% on vacant units, aiming to curb soaring rents. Some housing-market analysts believe this has led certain landlords to keep their units off the market, hoping the rule will eventually return. The Housing and Vacancy Survey, a report published every three years by the New York Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the US Census Bureau, shows that between January and June 2023, about 33,000 of the city's roughly 2.3 million apartments were vacant and available for rent. The survey estimated that 26,310 rent-stabilized apartments were left vacant in that time period. While that is less than the 43,000 vacant units in the same survey in 2021, it is not much less than the 33,210 units of all housing that were for rent between January and July 2023. Some renters have had success challenging landlords who have illegally charged them market-rate rent for what is actually a stabilized unit. Last year, a New York City renter named Danielle, who declined to share her last name with BI for privacy reasons, reached a $150,000 settlement with her former landlord after discovering she was paying market-rate for a unit that was actually rent-stabilized. "I already didn't kind of trust landlords, but I guess I had lived in this world where I assumed that people, for the most part, told the truth about stuff," she told Business Insider in 2024. Units on RentReboot come from cross-checking addresses with the city's official list, but some are additionally flagged as verified if their StreetEasy profiles also mention their rent-stabilized status. Miraoui and Sebti are working on ways to quickly verify a unit's rent-stabilized status with its broker, even if it's not explicitly mentioned in the listing. They also plan to add additional features to the website using generative AI, like analyzing photos of windows in the listings to figure out which units have the most natural light. Read the original article on Business Insider
