NYC’s Rental Inventory Dropped Post-FARE Act

17 September 2025

Rental apartments were harder to come by this summer in the wake of New York City’s ban on broker fees.

Across the five boroughs, the number of rental listings fell in June, July and August compared to their year-ago totals, according to data provided by the Real Estate Board of New York. The trade group’s analysis was based on all listings available on its residential listing service during the periods.

“The FARE Act has created chaos and confusion in the residential rental market, is diminishing choice for tenants, increasing rents and costing the industry jobs,” REBNY president James Whelan wrote in a statement. “This is bad policy, and it is only getting worse.”

Inventory dropped 16 percent in June, the same month the city implemented the FARE Act barring landlords from charging tenants fees for agents they hired, according to REBNY’s analysis.

In the months following the policy’s enactment, the dip became even more pronounced. Inventory decreased 23 percent in July and 29 percent in August, according to data from the organization. As fewer apartments hit the market, prices rose on an annual basis in each of the three months, up 7 percent in June and July and 11 percent in August.

However, the inventory problem is likely less dire than the trade group’s analysis reflects. Other groups, such as data analytics platform UrbanDigs, have lamented that rental data has been harder to track with fewer listings hitting the RLS. Other data sources, such as StreetEasy, capture a larger swatch of apartments and include citywide numbers that are, in some cases, more than three times the figures REBNY reported.

Data from StreetEasy also shows a decline in inventory across the city, though its metrics indicated a more gradual reduction, with inventory falling just 2 percent in June, 11 percent in July and 9 percent in August.

Manhattan logged the most substantial decrease, with inventory dipping 7 percent in June, 18 percent in July and 13 percent in August, according to data from StreetEasy. But apartment listings in Brooklyn and Queens remained much steadier, with both boroughs notching small upticks in June followed by modest declines between 2 percent and 5 percent in the following two months.

“This was more about optics than it was about the actual impacts,” Corcoran’s chief operating officer Gary Malin said of the law, which he described as decreasing transparency in the market and making it harder for tenants to find apartments on their own. “They’re taking the industry back to before the internet.”

Tight market squeezes brokers, renters

Though REBNY largely attributes the upset to the FARE Act, other factors are likely at play, especially in Manhattan, where competition for apartments was already tight, according to a report from StreetEasy published earlier this summer.

While rent prices are on the rise, in part due to landlords attempting to offset the cost of broker fees, the same market constrictions contributing to the drop in inventory are also pushing prices higher. In New York City, the struggle with housing affordability is a longstanding issue that predates the new legislation, and other laws, such as Good Cause Eviction, have a hand in the recent market.

The summer months are also typically the busiest times of year for the city’s rental market, and the attention around the adoption of the FARE Act may have spurred even more activity than usual, according to a report from Openigloo based on a survey of its users. The rate of lease renewals between June and August fell from 69 percent in 2024 to 59 percent in 2025.

“I think the FARE Act had a part to play,” said Allia Mohamed, Openigloo’s co-founder and CEO. “Renters felt empowered and had more flexibility to enter the rental market.”

Despite higher rents, Openigloo’s report found that tenants still saved money without the cost of the broker fee — about $1,300 per unit annually.

REBNY sought to halt the FARE Act from taking effect ahead of its implementation day, though federal judges have repeatedly denied the trade group’s request, including the latest decision handed down by an appeals court judge last month. REBNY is suing the city over the law.

Still, brokers dealing in rentals are contending with the fallout while the law stays in place.

“Owners are getting squeezed, and brokers are working harder for their money,” said Corcoran’s Shloma Hecht. “It’s competitive.”

The policy has pushed landlords to negotiate with brokers, Hecht added, many of whom will agree to collect a smaller fee from property owners with large portfolios. The norm used to be about a month of rent, but now some agents are taking less than that, though how much less varies and, in part, coincides with the cost of the apartment.

“If you’re tough, and you say, ‘I’m only going to work for a month or nothing,’ you could lose a big account,” Hecht said. “They’re going to go down the block and hire someone else.”

The key to survival is pulling on existing relationships with landlords, who already trust in the value of their agents’ services, Hecht said. However, winning new business has been a tougher sell.

“It makes the pitch harder,” Hecht said.

Compass broker James Finelli said the FARE Act will hit new agents harder, who lack proven track records with property owners.

“People who have established businesses, I don’t think they’re going to be severely impacted,” said Finelli. “If [landlords] are going to elect to pay a fee, they’re going to be more scrupulous on the person.”

Both Finelli and Hecht agreed that those likely to absorb most of the law’s impact are tenants, who are seeing asking rents go up even higher and who are having a tougher time finding available apartments. To access that inventory, some are hiring brokers and agreeing to pay a fee on top of paying an elevated asking rent.

The Agency’s Evan Roth added that, at some point, something’s gotta give.

“It’s a pressure cooker kind of situation. Just how much can these renters take,” Roth said. “It’s only a matter of time before there’s more of a shift back to the sales market.”