NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) -- The time is nearing for when New Yorkers will no longer have to pay a broker fee for renting apartments if they're not the hiring party.
The Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses (FARE) Act takes effect in a week and will make it so that brokers in NYC will have to be paid by the hiring party. Additionally, property managers or their brokers must disclose any fees a tenant must pay in their rental listings and rental agreements.
Ahead of its enactment, real estate experts from StreetEasy are sharing their predictions for how the new law will impact renters.
StreetEasy experts say residents will likely see upfront costs for rentals drop by as much as 41.8%. In the first half of 2025, the cost to sign a rental lease, including a broker fee, was averaged at $12,942. A cost that StreetEasy experts say has made it increasingly difficult for New Yorkers to find their next home.
After the FARE Act takes effect the average upfront cost to rent is expected to drop to about $7,537.
While some have expressed concern that the broker fees may now be baked into the cost of rent, StreetEasy's real estate experts say the expected rent increases won't be much higher than broader market trends.
Among properties that dropped broker fees ahead of the FARE Act, researchers found that rents were raised by 5.3%, which was only slightly higher than the average growth of 4.6% for apartments that maintained broker fees.
The difference appears to indicate that property managers will likely absorb much of the additional cost incurred by bringing leasing activity in-house or covering rental brokers’ fees directly, real estate experts say.
Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here.
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