What Does the Term “Long Term Rental” Really Mean in NYC?
While there is no one way to define long term rentals, the term is used more and more by renters, especially with the rising popularity of “shorter stays”. What would be a long term rental in NYC, may be considered short term somewhere else.
The definition of a long term rental mostly depends on your prior experience with renting. If you’re used to services like Airbnb and Homeaway with stays usually lasting anywhere between a couple of days and a few weeks (and if you consider these “short term”) then a long term stay would mean renting or leasing an apartment for more than a month. In fact, even Airbnb uses the term “long term rentals” to mean renting for over a month.
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However, if you live in New York City where it’s mostly considered illegal to lease or rent a New York apartment for less than 30 days, then a stay of “30 days or less” is not something you would even give much thought to. To this person, a “short term rental” generally refer to stays between 30 days and less than 12 months. In fact, this type of short term rental is what our sister site Leasebreak focuses on, and they are #1 in that category. So, to this person, they could use the term “long term rental” to differentiate between a “short term rental”. To them, a long term rental would generally mean a lease that is 12 months or more.
Long Time NYC Residents Have Different Definitions of Long Term Rentals
And yet to someone who has been renting in NYC for a very long time, this doesn’t sound quite right. 95 percent of apartment leases in New York are on a 12-month contract or more. So for this person, there’s no such thing as a long term lease, long term apartment, or a long term sublet – only your typical rental. Instead, what would likely be considered as “long term stay” to this person is a lease term of 2 to 5 years. However, bear in mind while it is quite common to see 2 year apartment leases in NYC, lease terms lasting longer than 2 years are relatively unheard of.
Another interpretation of long term rental could mean a 12-month contract that can be renewed forever. Most landlords would be more than happy to keep on offering you a renewal lease, provided that you two come into terms and agree on the renewal (Tips to renew your lease). Note that if you rent in a coop or condo from an individual owner, you may not be able to rent from them “forever”. They may decide to move back in or sell it.
The definition of Long Term Rental is Still Being Worked Out
What classifies as a long term stay depends on whom you’re asking. For Airbnb users or frequent users of similar vacation-like websites, short term stays are between one day and 30 days and long term rentals are over 30 days. For newer NYC renters, a short term lease is between 1 and 12 months and a long term lease is 12 months or more. Finally, for people who have lived in NYC for some time, a short term rental is typically a lease less than 12 months while the term “long term rental” could just cause confusion, or possibly mean a place where you can stay for multiple years.
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This article was written by:
Phil Horigan, NYC Real Estate Veteran
Founder, Frēlē, the free and honest NYC rental marketplace
Producer, Phil’s NYC Rental Tips [YouTube Channel]
Blogger: flowfreely.com
Instagram: @philiphorigan
Phil has been a licensed NYC real estate agent since 2004 working for some of the top real estate brokerage firms in the industry. He founded Leasebreak.com in 2013, and Frēlē in 2017. Frēlē and Leasebreak are free and transparent rental marketplaces to search for or post apartments for rent in NYC
Go to frele.com to search for NYC apartments (free service).