FILE - A new building sits between two older-style buildings in the East Harlem section of New York, Feb. 3, 2015. Legislation backed by a majority of the New York City Council would require landlords who hire brokers to pay their broker fees, marking a potential sea change in one of the country’s most expensive housing markets.
“In most businesses, the person who hires the person pays the person,” said Agustina Velez, a house cleaner from Queens who said she recently paid $6,000 to switch apartments. “Enough with these injustices. Landlords have to pay for the services they use.”NYC bird group drops name of illustrator and slave owner Audubon
“This is the start of a top-down government-controlled housing system,” said Jordan Silver, a broker with the firm Brown Harris Stevens. “The language is so incredibly vague we actually have no idea what this would look like in the world.”to act following a recent apartment search that was “tiring, treacherous, and competitive.” Another local official, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, testified that he’d once paid a $2,500 fee to a broker he never met.
Brokerage firms estimate that roughly half of the city’s apartments require a tenant-paid broker fee. The price of those fees can vary widely, though the standard amount is 15% of the annual rent. For the average apartment in Manhattan, where the median monthly rent recently hit $4,500, that would amount to a fee of $8,100.
Brokers are adamant that their jobs are far more intensive than merely opening the door to tenants. Many said they help put together listings, review applications, answer questions posed by tenants and arrange tours at all hours of the day. But some also acknowledged that the current system favors landlords.