{"id":330380,"date":"2026-08-26T18:42:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330380\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T18:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:42:45","slug":"queens-apartment-pipeline-shallowest-in-a-decade-but-new-supply-on-the-way-commercial-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330380\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens\u2019 Apartment Pipeline Shallowest in a Decade \u2014 But New Supply On the Way \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/qns.com\/2019\/03\/guide-to-queens-a-look-back-at-how-the-worlds-borough-was-born\/\">The world\u2019s borough<\/a> might attract some new residents soon.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a multifamily squeeze in Queens as the rental market tightens amid a dip in new construction, according to new data from <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/company\/costar\/\" title=\"CoStar\" class=\"company-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CoStar<\/a>. But experts on the borough\u2019s housing market say this drop won\u2019t last too much longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO: <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/2026\/08\/citadel-care-centers-aventura-plaza-rehabilitation-nursing-center-pnc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Citadel Care Centers Lands $51M to Build Nursing Facility Near Aventura<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The vacancy rate in Queens\u2019 multifamily market declined to 2.08 percent in the second quarter of 2026, versus 2.39 percent for the same quarter in 2025. Meanwhile, stabilized vacancy hit a record low of 1.3 percent, which CoStar called \u201cwell below the metro average,\u201d and the apartment pipeline has declined 76 percent since early 2024, falling from 10,881 units under construction to just 2,597 during the second quarter of 2026. That represents the borough\u2019s shallowest pipeline in at least a decade, according to the CoStar analysis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s that classic story of supply and demand,\u201d said Victor Rodriguez, senior director of market analytics at CoStar. \u201cWe saw vacancies drift upward in recent years in Queens, just because there\u2019s so much being built. It does take time for those newer buildings to lease up, especially as you are looking to add thousands upon thousands of units every single year. But, when the supply story changes, the demand story doesn\u2019t necessarily change, and what we have here, especially throughout Queens, is a major decline in that construction pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The construction pipeline slowed recently due to the passage of <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/2026\/07\/developers-making-485x-work\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the city\u2019s 485-x initiative<\/a> \u2014 a tax abatement program designed to incentivize more affordable housing that comes with heftier construction wage costs for projects over 100 units \u2014 and due to some developers waiting for the passage of the housing-friendly One LIC rezoning in Long Island City, according to Eric Benaim, co-founder and CEO of real estate group <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/company\/modern-spaces\/\" title=\"Modern Spaces\" class=\"company-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Modern Spaces<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were a lot of projects that were on pause because they were waiting for 485-x to happen,\u201d Benaim said. \u201cThat threw a wrench into a lot of projects, especially because of the 99-unit thing. It even affected our pipeline because we usually plan 12 to 24 months in advance. A lot of developers were also on hold because they were waiting for One LIC to pass. They weren\u2019t sure what was going to happen with One LIC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But with <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/2025\/11\/onelic-passed-new-york-city-council\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the passage of One LIC<\/a> last November \u2014 along with other Queens rezoning initiatives like the <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/2025\/10\/new-york-city-council-approves-jamaica-neighborhood-plan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jamaica Neighborhood plan<\/a> \u2014 Benaim says the borough is bound to see a boom in new construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince One LIC passed, we\u2019ve been really busy, a lot of developers have been calling us,\u201d he said. \u201cThere has been a lot of movement\u00a0 on development sites being sold, as well as projects moving forward, or new projects being planned. There is going to be a huge supply. One LIC said it was going to increase by 15,000 units. I could see within 30 to 36 months at least 4,000 or 5,000 units hitting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amanda Schiavo can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/2026\/08\/queens-apartment-pipeline-supply\/mailto:aschiavo@commercialobserver.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">aschiavo@commercialobserver.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world\u2019s borough might attract some new residents soon. There\u2019s a multifamily squeeze in Queens as the rental&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3624,1527,2184,1286,9,24,63,122,124,123,124367,34189],"class_list":["post-330380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-channel","tag-construction","tag-development","tag-more","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-research-analysis-eric-benaim","tag-victor-rodriguez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330380","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=330380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}