Outer boroughs of NYC see housing boom

New York

FOR AvalonBay Communities Inc, the next promising area for New York development is in south-east Brooklyn, at the second-to-last stop on the B train and off a bustling strip of discount stores and fruit stands.

There, in Sheepshead Bay, the second biggest publicly traded US apartment landlord is planning 200 luxury rentals in the tallest tower the community has seen in decades. The project, about a 45-minute subway ride from midtown Manhattan, is also the most remote within the city for the company.

For all the attention Manhattan's ultra-luxury condominium towers have captured - with their sky-piercing heights and record-shattering prices - New York City's largest residential construction boom is in the farther reaches of the outer boroughs. Builders of rental and for-sale housing are being drawn to Brooklyn and Queens neighbourhoods where la…