Top NYC rents need to fall 15% to absorb glut

New York

APARTMENT rents in cities such as New York and San Francisco will need to fall as much as 15 per cent for a glut of high-end developments to be absorbed, according to billionaire real estate investor Richard LeFrak.

"We built a lot of new product at the high end, anticipating incomes that don't exist in the market now," Mr LeFrak, chairman and chief executive officer of LeFrak Organization, said on Wednesday in a Bloomberg Television interview.