NYC apartment landlords feel the sting of COVID-19

By: Seeking Alpha

About a quarter of New York City apartment tenants didn't pay any rent in May, TheRealDeal reports, citing a survey by landlord trade group Community Housing Improvement Program.

The landlords surveyed, though, only account for about 100,000 apartment units, a sliver of the city's 3M rental households.

That contrasts with a 12% nonpayment rate at 11.4M market-rate properties covered in report from the National Multifamily Housing Council.

The CHIP survey also found that 64% of retail ground-floor tenants at those apartment buildings surveyed didn't pay their May rent.

“Congress must provide financial aid directly to renters and the state must match that with property tax relief for owners or in weeks, not months, we will see buildings going under,” said CHIP Executive Director Jay Martin.

Buildings surveyed in active rent strikes had an additional 10% decline in rent. Tenant groups have been publicly targeting landlords that they figure can afford to "take the hit."