I read this piece on the ridiculous rent increases happening in Kingston NY. I was struck by the comments of one of the landlords:
“My tenants are driving Teslas, BMWs, Volvo XC90s,” he says. “I’m driving a 20-plus-year-old Jeep with 400,000 miles.” And while he concedes the price of apartments “might be a hardship” for some renters, “if you’re a relatively young and mobile person, I don’t think it’s a big deal.”
Your tenants are driving BMWs? How is that any of your business? Secondly that implies that this landlord thinks he should have the care note money rather than BMW AG.
That's a lot of nerve. I personally own 2 BMWs. I have lived FAR below my means for most of my life. I COULD pay far more in rent than I do and live elsewhere, particularly the high rises that are near me but WHY should I?
Why should I give some landlord 50% or more of my income?
This is why I don't get why people live in NYC with the ridiculous rents there. Why people shack up with 2,3, 4 people in order to "afford" rent.
It is some huge sense of entitlement to look at what people have and think 'They should be paying me instead."
"Marie Talaska, a 69-year-old retiree, joined after receiving a 30% rent increase that meant she wouldn’t have enough money for her blood pressure medication."
30% rent increase.
"The pair also promised big upgrades, and claimed existing tenants would see “very very minimal increases” in rent. But they sold a very different story to investors. In its fundraising materials, Aker boasted of plans to hike rents at Stony Run as much as $428 over five years, before selling the buildings with “meat on the bone” – meaning room to push rents even higher."
Meat on the bones as in:
The largest of those was an ageing development called Stony Run – E&M paid $28m in 2019 for its 267 units, including Treasure’s...
Then, in 2021, it sold Stony Run and three other Kingston complexes to a startup called Aker, which paid $81m for the portfolio, netting E&M a quick $26m profit.
Not sure how that's only a 26m profit but OK. That's double the layout from 2019.
Exactly what's the justification for a 15-30% rent increase with resale values like that?
Look. Let's take rent at $1000 a month for easy math. If every unit is rented (doesn't happen but again, easy math) then the owner is getting $267,000 each month and $3.2 million each year.
That's not profitable? OK. Then how did they purchase the units in the first place? Where did THAT money come from? A loan you say? Fine, what was the collateral? You think a bank lent them the money without seeing that these people run a profitable venture elsewhere?
Sure repairs and maintenance costs money. I've watched enough flip shows to know that those kinds of layouts, when done professionally and properly last for years and that money is well recouped.