TheAJx t1_ja87f9f wrote on February 27, 2023 at 3:56 PM

Reply to comment by DifficultyNext7666 in Midtown Owners Hedge on Costly Office-to-Home Conversions by psychothumbs

I'm sure 20 years ago a lot of people though Financial District sucks and that no one would want to live there either. Since then, the population has exploded from 20K to 60K.

People will live there if there is affordability. The same thing happened with Fidi, which consistently had lower rents and housing prices than the rest of lower Manhattan.

DifficultyNext7666 t1_ja8alh9 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 4:17 PM

Why would there be affordability when it'd so expensive to reno this units?

TheAJx t1_ja8ecno wrote on February 27, 2023 at 4:43 PM

Renovating the units is at least in part expensive due to zoning regulations, per the article. We should look for opportunities to remove these obstacles where they make sense. This reduces the cost of reno.

Bringing more apartments into the supply has a rent reducing effect.

Financial district was significantly cheaper than most of Manhattan up until a few years ago, despite the expense of renovating apartments down there.