A new federal class-action lawsuit blames a fresh culprit for the record-high rents plaguing New York City tenants: the nation\u2019s largest real estate brokerage.<\/p>\n
Two Tribeca tenants have accused the rental giant Compass of becoming \u201ca living, breathing real estate leviathan\u201d that distorted the market and forced them to pay a higher price for their apartment. Plaintiffs Peter Castaneda and Haley Gelfand say the giant brokerage is monopolizing 80% of Manhattan rentals and \u201chiding listings\u201d from public-facing platforms like StreetEasy.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York City\u2019s rental market was already on the verge of being broken, and Compass decided, to its own benefit, to shatter it,\u201d they charge in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.<\/p>\n
The complaint accuses Compass of \u201ca conspiracy to monopolize and harm hardworking New Yorkers in the New York City metro area.\u201d<\/p>\n
The renters say they are paying $5,270 a month for one-bedroom apartments they leased earlier this month \u2013 an amount they claim was inflated by Compass\u2019 decision to pull listings from StreetEasy in July.<\/p>\n
Compass did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Castaneda declined to comment on the lawsuit. Gelfand did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.<\/p>\n
Their attorney Blake Yagman said Compass\u2019 practices created a \u201csupply shock\u201d that has led to bidding wars for a dwindling number of units.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople looking on publicly available sources like Zillow aren\u2019t able to access all of the supply that is available to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The median rent in Manhattan reached a record-high $5,000 last month, according to an analysis by The Real Deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The latest spike traces a yearslong surge in prices amid increased demand for a limited number of units. Just 1.4% of all apartments are empty and available to rent, according to the city\u2019s more recent housing survey. The rate is under 1% for units priced below $2,400 a month.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s housing agency unveiled its own blueprint for building 700,000 new units to solve the shortage<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n But the new antitrust complaint says Compass’ actions and control over the rental market are worsening the current crisis.<\/p>\n It is the latest front in a series of ongoing legal, regulatory and public relations battles Compass is facing over claims it has distorted the rental market in New York City.<\/p>\n The company is the subject of an investigation<\/a> by New York Attorney General Letitia James following its $1.6 billion acquisition earlier this year of its former rival firm Anywhere Real Estate \u2014 an umbrella company for other brokerages like Corcoran Group and Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren launched a congressional probe<\/a> over concerns that Compass\u2019 industry consolidation will \u201charm consumers by driving up housing costs and worsening inequalities in the housing market\u201d nationwide.<\/p>\n The firm was also locked in yearlong litigation against Zillow, the parent company of StreetEasy, over Zillow\u2019s rules barring listings that Compass had initially placed on its own exclusive service. Compass dropped the lawsuit after Zillow made changes to its rules, but the two industry giants have remained at odds.<\/p>\n The new lawsuit brought by tenants claims Compass explicitly instructed agents to pull listings off StreetEasy last month, leading to a significant decrease in the number of apartments available on the platform. Following the directive, listings dropped 7% in the first week of August and 11% in the second week, The Real Deal reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Compass encouraged its brokers to instead list units on a separate platform maintained by the Real Estate Board of New York, thus \u201cdepriving consumers of free-to-access portals to find rental units,\u201d including units without broker fees, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n Yagman, the attorney for the tenants, said Zillow and its subsidiary StreetEasy are not involved in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n But the company nevertheless cheered the complaint.<\/p>\n “When listings are deliberately hidden from public platforms, real consumers pay the price,\u201d said StreetEasy spokesperson Matt Kreamer in a written statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new federal class-action lawsuit blames a fresh culprit for the record-high rents plaguing New York City tenants:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-326923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}