Rents for no-doorman apartments in Manhattan reach a record

New York

MANHATTAN apartment rents are on the decline - unless you're living in a no-frills building without a doorman. For those units, rents just hit a record.

While new luxury apartments with doormen - and other extras, such as pools and gyms - are proliferating and landlords are cutting deals to get them filled, renters who seek more affordable havens have been driving up demand for older, basic units, for which the supply is more fixed.

The median rent for Manhattan buildings without doormen jumped 5.8 per cent in April from a year earlier to US$2,995, the highest in records dating back…