Here are the solutions they support.

Key Takeaways

  • The affordability crisis in NYC is significantly affecting rental agents, with 85% reporting that the housing shortage has an impact on their business.
  • Many agents spend over 10 hours marketing a single rental listing, and report the time (66%) and financial cost (60%) it takes to market units with no guarantee of payment as top pain points.
  • Agents support a variety of solutions to improve NYC’s housing crisis, including builder incentives, converting commercial buildings, and renter assistance.
  • Agents also broadly support renter-friendly practices, including independent representation, signing written agreements, and ensuring renters have access to all available inventory.

The NYC rental market is competitive — for renters and agents. And with ongoing rental affordability challenges and limited inventory, it’s getting even tougher.

Just how much is the housing crisis affecting rental agents, and what would solve some of the common problems renters and agents face? A StreetEasy survey recently posed these questions to more than 400 NYC agents who’ve represented a renter or landlord in the last five years. In this article, we’ll explore what they told us, including how limited rental inventory is impacting their work, the biggest challenges they’re currently facing, and the changes they believe will make the greatest impact on the NYC market.

Table of Contents
NYC rental agents’ jobs are being impacted by the affordability crisis
Agents work hard — but aren’t consistently paid for their work
Agents believe transparency and access benefits renters and agents
Agents support giving renters more options to pay upfront costs and build credit
The policy measures agents most believe will help New York’s housing affordability crisis
How StreetEasy is helping address the affordability crisis for renters, landlords, and agents
Methodology

NYC rental agents’ jobs are being impacted by the affordability crisis

Median asking rents in NYC hit record highs this year, reaching $3,800 in August 2024. These high rents are primarily due to low inventory. In 2023, just 1.4% of NYC rentals were vacant — a historic low for the city. While inventory has been slowly rising recently, the shortage is still putting an enormous strain on the market, impacting many renters and agents.

According to our survey, 85% of agents say the shortage has impacted their business. Only 16% say the shortage hasn’t impacted them at all.

Agents work hard — but aren’t consistently paid for their work

For most agents, marketing rental listings is a time-consuming task — and there’s often no guarantee of a commission. 

More than half (56%) of NYC agents reported spending over 10 hours marketing a rental listing for a landlord. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that the largest percentage of agents (29%) said they spend between five and 10 hours marketing a single listing, while 24% said they spent 11 to 15 hours, and 19% said 16 to 19 hours. For 14% of agents, rental marketing takes over 20 hours, while another 15% said they spend less than five hours.

Time-consuming marketing can become even more challenging for agents when working on open listings, where landlords work with multiple agents to rent out an apartment. A commission is only paid to the agent who successfully finds a renter for the listing, denying compensation to other agents who marketed the rental unit.

Around two-thirds (70%) of agents have worked on an open listing at some point. Some of the issues they face are the time (66%) and financial cost (60%) it takes to market units with no guarantee of payment, lack of insight from landlords around current and upcoming apartment vacancies (66%), and getting paid on time by landlords (49%).

Competition with other agents is another common pain point with open listings. Agents find it challenging to compete to win a listing (64%) or even access the apartment for a showing (61%).

A vast majority of agents (91%) have faced at least three of the problems described above when working on an open listing. When asked if they were compensated fairly for their time invested in these units, 68% of agents agreed, while 32% disagreed.

Agents believe transparency and access benefits renters and agents

There’s no denying that NYC’s rental market needs improvements to be more equitable and accessible. When asked what actions are most beneficial to renters and agents, agents put actions that increase transparency, access and consumer choice at the top of the list.

For example, 79% said a renter’s agent not also representing the landlord is in renters’ best interest, while 70% said independent representation benefits agents, too. Another 75% said a written agreement outlining an agent’s compensation and rental services is beneficial to renters, while 65% said the same of agents. 

Most agents (70%) said renters would benefit from having access to all available rental listings on the market, while 54% said this would benefit agents too. Lastly, 69% believe renters being able to choose whether they work with an agent is helpful for renters, while 52% believe this helps agents as well.

Agents support giving renters more options to pay upfront costs and build credit

Renters face substantial financial hurdles when moving into an apartment, like paying the first month’s rent, a security deposit, and often a broker fee upfront. 

All told, the average NYC renter spends over $10,400 in upfront costs — a 7.1% jump from 2019. Since the median NYC household income is $74,694, that means the typical renter has to pay 14% of their yearly income when signing a new lease. 

To alleviate some of this burden, 76% of agents say renters would benefit from payment plans to help them pay upfront costs in installments. Most agents (68%) believe renters would also benefit from the ability to negotiate the broker fee paid to an agent, and 67% say the same of allowing renters to build credit while paying rent.

The policy measures agents most believe will help New York’s housing affordability crisis

Agents say NYC needs to provide more support for builders, landlords, and renters to ease the housing shortage and high cost of renting. However, agents vary widely in which solutions they view as most important for alleviating New York’s housing crisis.

When asked what are the top three measures that would help improve the affordability crisis, agents most often pointed to tax incentives for builders and developers to encourage constructing more housing (53%), increasing government-sponsored renter assistance such as housing vouchers (48%), repurposing commercial buildings for residential use (46%), and more government programs to support landlords with maintenance and repairs (46%).

How StreetEasy is helping address the affordability crisis for renters, landlords, and agents

At StreetEasy and Zillow, we’re committed to creating a more equitable housing market for New Yorkers and supporting the agents who serve them. We’re working to help address the city’s affordability crisis by advocating for comprehensive legislation, with the goal of increasing access, transparency, and affordability. That includes supporting zoning regulations to increase the housing supply, as well as policy changes to combat housing discrimination. Crucially, we’re also supporting legislation to reshape the current broker fee model. This includes measures to lower upfront costs for renters by requiring the hiring party to pay the broker fee, and to ensure agents are paid for their work by having written agreements in place with the hiring party.

Other advocacy efforts include partnering with fair housing organizations such as the Fair Housing Justice Center, Enterprise Community Partners, and the Center for NYC Neighborhoods (CNYCN), as well as industry groups like the New York State Association of Realtors (NYSAR), Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors (HGAR), and Long Island Board of Realtors (LIBOR) to push for resources and legislation to combat housing discrimination statewide.

StreetEasy and Zillow are open and enthusiastic about working together with agents and landlords to create a better system for all. Interested in partnering with us on our efforts to address NYC housing affordability? Fill out this brief form. 

Methodology

These analyses use data from Zillow Group Population Science’s July 2024 New York Agent Survey. Residential agents who lived in New York state, whose majority of listings are in the NYC metro area, and have represented either a renter or landlord in the last 5 years were eligible for participation. The survey included 445 agents.

To achieve representativeness of rental agents (agents that have represented renters, landlords, or both) in New York, we weighted the sample using the U.S. Census Bureau 2022 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) using age, race/ethnicity, education, and income. In the American Community Survey, “agents” were defined as (1) adults (2) in the labor force who (3) have a positive (personal) income and (4) have a primary occupation classified as “real estate brokers and sales agents.”

StreetEasy is an assumed name of Zillow, Inc. which has a real estate brokerage license in all 50 states and D.C. See real estate licenses. StreetEasy does not intend to interfere with any agency agreement you may have with a real estate professional or solicit your business if you are already under contract to purchase or sell property. All data for uncited sources in this presentation has been sourced from Zillow data and/or surveys. Copyright © 2024 by Zillow, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.