The rental market is softening so fast in some pockets of the country that landlords have no choice but to offer concessions
The rental market is softening so fast in some pockets of the country that landlords have no choice but to offer concessions
"With vacancies on the rise, some landlords are doling out one-time discounts to attract renters while maintaining high asking rents on paper"
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Why can't they just offer the concession of lowering their rent in the first place, instead of relying on gimmicks like a first-year discount?
Because downward trends in rent affect real estate futures, which affects lending rates, which could cause the artificially inflated property values to collapse.
Not the artificially inflated property values!
Won't somebody please think of the artificially inflated property values!
Many people do think about the inflated property values. Namely the landlord, the landlord's accountant, the bank and the tax office.
So, for every single property there are at least 4 people thinking about the property value, because that's where their money comes from.
A lot of apartments in my area do first year discounts. The reason for that is a lot of cities have rules about how much you can raise rent in a year. Discounts are a loophole since they can raise it based off the non-discounted value. Also moving sucks and a new place has a chance of being terrible (and you're stuck for a year). So people are more willing to pay an increase once they're already in an apartment they tolerate.