Can I find a better deal?

moving costs are more than your increase

It never hurts to negotiate. You now know the highest that your rent might increase for next year. Ask for 10% less than you've been paying. See what your landlord says. Worst case scenario, I would expect NO increase and a renewal at your current rate.

Your apartment will rent to someone else, so you don't have that much leverage against the LL. Face it you live in a well located apartment with an open view. The LL knows the apartment doesn't have to be more than functional, requiring minimum capital expense, and it will rent quickly, even in this downturn. If you are particular about where you have to live, you cannot go for a serious discount. It sounds like you have a good deal where you are.

If your rent includes heat, hot water and functional appliances, I don't think you can find a better deal.

Yeah, having the electric included is a big value-add (though heat/hot water are generally included in NYC rentals, so that's not such a biggie). No harm in talking to the landlord--everything's negotiable. Could be, though, that he's bringing the unit up closer to market (from what you describe it sounds like you're currently paying under-market).

You may also consider asking him to do some improvements to those wear-worn finishes and appliances if he's gonna jack up your rent.

hejiranyc, here's what I'd do. I'd ask for a rent decrease (or for the rent to stay the same). If he says "no", then say that you're leaving at the end of the lease, BUT will NOT allow anyone to view the apartment while you're living there. Unless your lease says otherwise, you have absolutely NO OBLIGATION to let either the landlord or a broker show the apartment to others. It will be harder (although not impossible) to rent an apartment sight unseen. His only option will be to let it sit vacant for half a month or a full month. In that case, any "gain" from a higher rent will be more than offset by the loss. Hopefully, that will be enough of a consideration to make your landlord negotiate.

Of course, if that doesn't work, you either have to carry through on the threat and move, or suck it up and agree to the higher rent.

>>Unless your lease says otherwise, you have absolutely NO OBLIGATION to let either the landlord or a broker show the apartment to others.<<

This is a standard clause on most leases and unless you struck it out before signing, you may be stuck...

Thanks for the advice, y'all. Without going into a long, boring description of the landlord, they bought the building at the height of the bubble and had been systematically hiking up rents to the stratosphere, which forced people to move, renovating units and then flipping them back onto the market at astronomical rates. At one point there were over 20 vacant apartments out of roughly 200 in the building for months and months. Then came Bear Stearns. Then Lehman Brothers. They finally conceded and started to price the units with the decreased/decreasing market. Perhaps they learned their lesson about being too greedy? Anyway, with that in mind, I wonder how amenable they would be in negotiating. Keep in mind also that, now that the tables have turned, the landlords are paying broker fees, so not only are they missing rent, they have to pay for a broker plus the cost to renovate the place. So at the end of the day, there is every incentive for landlords to keep existing tenants, especially good ones like me.

Idiot all...blabbing fools who know nothing at all

did something happen to negotiating? is a counter offer not possible? side bar on electric - if you like to run the a/c during the warmer weather, watch your con ed bill in a new unit run like the debt clock....