{"id":327198,"date":"2026-08-22T04:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327198\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T04:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:04:21","slug":"notoriously-cramped-nyc-apartments-are-actually-getting-larger-in-1-borough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327198\/","title":{"rendered":"Notoriously cramped NYC apartments are actually getting larger in 1 borough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renters chasing extra elbow room in New York City have exactly one borough to thank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Queens is the sole district where new apartments have grown over the past decade, according to a fresh analysis from RentCafe<\/a> that tracked square footage across the 100 largest cities in the country.<\/p>\n

What’s more, Queens lands at fifth nationally for the biggest gains in living space during that span of time.<\/p>\n

The typical new Queens apartment now clocks in at 732 square feet, a 16-square-foot bump from where things stood a decade ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens is the only borough in New York City where new apartments have gotten bigger over the past decade. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens apartments grew by 16 square feet to an average 732 square feet, according to a new RentCafe report that ranks the borough fifth nationally for the biggest space gains among the 100 largest US cities. VistaBee for Corcoran<\/p>\n

That’s part of a broader national trend, with the average US apartment now sitting at 910 square feet after every unit type picked up extra space in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Queens’ growth outpaced the national gain of 13 square feet, even as the borough still ranks in the bottom tier for overall size compared to the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

\"Brooklyn<\/p>\n

Brooklyn and Manhattan haven’t been as lucky: Brooklyn ranks among the country’s smallest markets at 714 square feet, 6 square feet smaller than a decade ago, while Manhattan sits at 735 square feet with barely any change since 2016. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"Developers<\/p>\n

Developers building smaller studios and one-bedrooms to pack more units per building are largely driving the squeeze. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Brooklyn and Manhattan did not fare nearly as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooklyn ranks fourth among the country’s smallest markets<\/a>, with apartments averaging 714 square feet, 6 square feet smaller than a decade ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Manhattan landed just behind at 735 square feet with sizes barely budging <\/a>since 2016.<\/p>\n

Both boroughs are getting squeezed by the same forces reshaping cramped cities everywhere. Developers are leaning hard into studios and one-bedrooms because they can pack more units into a single building, a strategy that drives down the average square footage even as it puts more apartments on the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When we see average apartment sizes decrease in a city, it doesn’t necessarily mean renters are getting less value,” RentCafe research analyst Veronica Grecu said in the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Even<\/p>\n

Even Queens’ modest gains still leave it well short of the country’s roomiest market \u2014 Tallahassee, Florida, where apartments average 1,156 square feet. Jacob \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

“In high-demand markets, developers often prioritize studios and one-bedrooms because they can deliver more apartments per building and meet the needs of a growing number of single-person and smaller households,” she added. “The trade-off is a lower average square footage, but the upside is more availability in markets where inventory has historically been tight.”<\/p>\n

Even with its gains, Queens is far from spacious by national standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The borough still trails the national average by more than 175 square feet, and comes nowhere close to Tallahassee, Florida, where new apartments average a roomy 1,156 square feet \u2014\u00a0 the largest in the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, in a city where square footage<\/a> has become the ultimate luxury, Queens renters can at least say their apartments are headed in the right direction while their neighbors across the East River keep losing ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renters chasing extra elbow room in New York City have exactly one borough to thank.\u00a0 Queens is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6722,9,56,63,65,64,112237],"class_list":["post-327198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-apartments","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-square-footage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327198","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=327198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}