April 29, 2014 By Michael Florio
The rental market in Astoria has just broken through the $5,000 per month barrier.
Justin Kinslow, a broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate, said he has just rented a 1,700 square foot, two-story town house townhouse for $5,000 per-month, which he claims is a new Astoria record.
Kinslow, who said the record can be verified by going to streeteasy.com, also claimed that there hasn’t been an apartment/townhouse rented for more than $4,000 per-month in Astoria. He said he has also talked to several other real estate experts in the area about these figures.
The $5,000 townhouse, located at 30-56 35th Street, comes with 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, central air conditioning and heat, which can be controlled by a remote or an iPhone app. Each room features exposed brick walls, white cedar floors, double pane glass windows and recessed lighting with dimmers.
Kinslow said the building’s owner lives in Geneva, Switzerland, and bought the 3-unit building nearly two years ago for $1 million. He gutted it and put roughly $1 million into it with renovations.
The owner was originally seeking $5,500 per-month when it hit the market at the end of January. This was “dramatically higher than any other three bedroom apartment in Astoria,” Kinslow said. He said the closest to that asking price in Astoria was $4,200 and that apartment was on the market for a long time.
Kinslow said he was able to set rent this particularly townhouse due to its location. Being by 30th Ave, “it has great nightlife, restaurants and is only blocks away from the subway,” he said.
“It’s the best location in the entire neighborhood,” Kinslow claims.
He marketed it to people from Manhattan and wound up luring college students from the East Village.
“They like the atmosphere and the feel that everyone has a stake in the community,” said Kinslow.
“This is much better then what they could get in Manhattan, even at the high price tag,” Kinslow said.
