Why Living Smaller Is A Big Deal For NYC Multifamily

As households continue to shrink in Manhattan, the options for rental apartments are slimming down, too – both literally and figuratively.

Earlier this summer, the Bloomberg Administration unveiled a design competition to create a rental building on a city-owned site in Kips Bay with “micro units” – a.k.a. apartments sized between 275 to 300 square feet – in an effort to help house the city’s growing population and changing demographics. According to the city, that means more options for New York’s rising population – 1.8 million one- and two-person households, to be exact – that are currently choosing from a pool of one million studios and one-bedrooms throughout the five boroughs.  The new solution: passing a zoning resolution that allows developers to build apartment towers with units smaller than current regulations (about 400 square feet under city law) near and within Manhattan’s core business districts.