How Many NYC Apartments Come With Free Months?

5.7% of NYC apartments listed September 12 to October 12, 2026 advertised rent concessions: 1,718 of 29,964. One month free was the most common offer. In buildings with 200 or more units, 13.3% offered free months, which lower the net effective rent but not the rent in the lease.

Published October 13, 2026. Data: NYC listings we first collected September 12 to October 12, 2026, one listing per apartment. An apartment counts when its listing stated free weeks or months, or gave a net rent below the gross rent. The most common lease term with an offer was 12 months.

The share was not the same across the city. It was 13.3% in buildings with 200 or more apartments and 2.7% in buildings with fewer than 10. It was 12.9% in buildings built in 2015 or later and 5.4% in older buildings. By borough, it was about 6% in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, 2.3% in the Bronx and 0.7% in Staten Island.

The short version: Of 29,964 NYC apartments first listed September 12 to October 12, 2026, 1,718 (5.7%) advertised free rent. Another 290 (1.0%) said the price was net effective or that concessions were available, without the terms. Of the 1,560 offers that stated an amount, 46.6% were one month. Where the listing gave both the free months and the lease term (1,010 offers), the median discount was 8.3% of the gross rent, the same as one month free on a 12-month lease.

How common are free months in each NYC borough?

Pick a borough and a size. The share counts each apartment once, even when it was listed on more than one site.

Studios had the highest share by size: 9.1% (378 of 4,137). One-bedrooms were at 6.3%, two-bedrooms at 5.4%, and apartments with three or more bedrooms at 2.3%. In Queens, 16.2% of studios advertised free rent (73 of 450).

Which NYC buildings offer free rent concessions?

Free rent was more common in large and new buildings and in the middle and upper price bands.

• Building size (15,854 apartments in buildings with a unit count in our records): 2.7% in buildings with 1 to 9 apartments, 3.2% with 10 to 49, 4.5% with 50 to 199, and 13.3% with 200 or more (902 of 6,806).
• Building age (16,026 apartments with a year built): 12.9% in buildings built in 2015 or later (655 of 5,087) and 5.4% in older buildings (595 of 10,939).
• Asking rent: 0.9% under $2,500 (45 of 4,867), 3.8% from $2,500 to $3,499, 7.0% from $3,500 to $4,499, 8.5% from $4,500 to $5,999 and 7.7% at $6,000 and up.

The median asking rent was $4,637 for apartments with a free-rent offer and $3,874 for apartments without one. That is a difference between two groups of apartments, which differ in size, age and location. It does not show that an offer raises or lowers the rent.

A small number of buildings account for many offers. The 1,527 offers that we could link to a building came from 500 buildings. The 10 buildings with the most offers had 281 of them (18.4%). Across all 9,385 buildings with an apartment in the sample, 5.3% had at least one apartment with a free-rent offer.

How many free months do NYC landlords offer?

Of the 1,560 offers that stated an amount:

• One month was the most common (727 offers, 46.6%).
• Two months or more made up 31.0%. Three months free appeared on 163 apartments.
• Less than one month, usually half a month or two weeks, made up 15.0%.
• 159 of the 1,718 offers (9.3%) said "up to", so the amount for a given apartment can be lower.

Of the 1,024 offers that stated a lease term, 41.8% were for 12 months and 57.9% were for longer terms, most often 18 months (255) or 24 months (87).

The discount depends on both numbers. One month free is 8.3% off a 12-month lease and 5.6% off an 18-month lease. These were the most common offers among the 1,010 that stated both free months and a lease term:

Across the 1,010 offers, the median discount was 8.3%. A quarter of offers were below 6.4% and a quarter were above 12.5%.

Is the listed price the net effective rent or the gross rent?

It depends on the listing. We found 288 listings that stated both a gross rent and a net-effective rent. The median gap between the two was $500 a month, or 8.3% (median gross $4,900, median net $4,345).

In 158 of the 288 (54.9%), the price shown on the listing was the gross rent. In 95 (33.0%), it was the net-effective rent. In the rest it matched neither figure. So two apartments at the same listed price can have different lease rents. When a listing says "net effective", "net rent advertised" or "price reflects concessions", the rent written into the lease is likely higher than the price you see. Our net-effective rent guide shows how to convert one into the other and how the payment schedule can differ.

Free rent is not the same as an owner-paid broker fee. Many listings write "OP" for a fee the owner pays. 677 apartments (2.3%) mentioned an owner-paid fee. 352 of them (52.0%) also advertised free rent, often as "1 month free or 1 month OP". We counted only free rent as a concession on this page.

NYC neighborhoods with the most free rent offers

Among the 56 neighborhoods with at least 150 apartments in the sample, the highest shares were in Hunters Point (34.3%, 228 of 664), Fort Greene (19.8%), the Financial District (16.9%), Downtown Brooklyn (15.9%), Hudson Yards (14.2%) and Greenpoint (14.0%). Four neighborhoods had none: East Williamsburg, Flushing, Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village and Woodstock in the Bronx.

In Hunters Point, the 220 offers we could link to a building came from 32 buildings, and three of them had 114 of the offers. Read a neighborhood's share as a count of current offers in its buildings, not as a rule for every apartment there.

What to check before you sign a lease with free months

A free-rent offer changes what you pay over the lease, but the lease decides the details. Before you sign, ask for these in writing:

1. The gross rent in the lease. Ask that the lease states it, and ask whether the security deposit and any renewal increase are based on it.
2. Which months are free. Listings in our sample named a free first month, a free last month, or a rent credit. The net-effective rent calculator shows the cash you pay under each schedule.
3. The conditions. Some offers require a longer lease, a move-in date or an application within a set number of days. Ask whether you lose the concession if you break the lease early or pay late.
4. How you qualify. Ask whether the income test (often 40 times the rent) uses the gross or the net rent.
5. What happens at renewal. Ask what rent a renewal will start from, and whether the offer applies to the first lease only.

If the listing shows a net-effective price, use the gross rent when you compare it with other apartments and with your budget. For more on asking for a better deal, see our guides to negotiating rent on a new lease, timing your search at the end of the month, new-development rentals and lease renewals.

How we counted free-month offers

Sample. NYC listings that we first collected between September 12 and October 12, 2026, with a five-borough ZIP code (New Jersey listings left out), not a room share, not furnished, and an asking rent from $1,000 to $25,000. We kept one row per apartment: 35,215 apartments. We could read 29,964 of them, meaning at least one of the apartment's listings had a description of 100 characters or more or offer fields from the source. All shares on this page use those 29,964 apartments. An apartment counts as offering free rent if any of its listings in the window did. The window starts after a change in the set of sites we collect from on September 11, 2026, so we do not compare it with earlier months.

What counts as free rent. A listing counts when its description or the source's offer field states free weeks or months of rent (for example "1 month free", "2 weeks free", "first month free", "1.75 months complimentary", "2MF"), or when the listing gives a net-effective rent below the gross rent. Two weeks counts as half a month. Free internet, parking, gym or amenity fees do not count. Owner-paid broker fees ("OP") do not count. Some sources give a months-free field. We used it only when the listing also stated the offer in words, mentioned net-effective rent, or gave a net rent below the gross, because some rows with this field had only an owner-paid fee in their offer text.

Hand checks. We read 100 randomly chosen apartments flagged as offering free rent: all 100 stated free weeks or months, or a net rent below the gross rent. Two of them had a misread amount ("1/2" read as 2), which we fixed before the final run. We read 100 randomly chosen unflagged apartments whose text contained words such as "free", "net", "concession", "special" or "credit" (7,514 such apartments): none stated free weeks or months that we missed. One mentioned rent credits without an amount, one had a source months-free value with no supporting wording, and four mentioned "specials" without terms. We also read 40 of the 290 apartments that said "net effective" or "concessions available" without terms: 27 clearly described a concession, 11 were standard wording that did not say whether a concession applied, and 2 were not concessions. That is why those 290 are reported separately and not in the 5.7%.

Checks. Counting listings instead of apartments gave 4.4% (2,515 of 57,644 readable listings). Counting only apartments with a unit number gave 6.6% (1,377 of 20,753). 30.7% of the apartments had no unit number in the listing, so some of them may stand for more than one apartment in the same building.

Limits. These are offers in listings, not signed leases. A listing that does not mention an offer may still come with one if you ask, and a listing that mentions one may come with conditions. Apartments that we could not read (5,251 of 35,215) are not in the shares. Building size and age come from our building records and are missing for some apartments. The analysis queries, the matching rules and the full results are kept with the report for reproduction.

Free rent and net effective rent FAQ

How many NYC apartments offer free months? Of 29,964 NYC apartments first listed between September 12 and October 12, 2026, 1,718 (5.7%) advertised free rent. Another 290 (1.0%) mentioned net-effective pricing or concessions without stating the terms.

What is the most common free-rent offer in NYC? One month free. It made up 46.6% of the 1,560 offers that stated an amount. The most common combination was one month free on a 12-month lease (211 apartments), which is an 8.3% discount on the gross rent.

Where are free months most common in NYC? In large and new buildings. 13.3% of apartments in buildings with 200 or more units advertised free rent, against 2.7% in buildings with fewer than 10. Among neighborhoods with at least 150 apartments in the sample, Hunters Point (34.3%), Fort Greene (19.8%) and the Financial District (16.9%) had the highest shares.

Is the listed price the net-effective rent or the gross rent? It varies. Of 288 listings that stated both, 54.9% showed the gross rent as the price and 33.0% showed the net-effective rent. Check the description, and ask for the gross rent that will be written into the lease.

Is "OP" the same as free rent? No. "OP" means the owner pays a broker fee. It does not change the rent. 677 apartments in the sample mentioned an owner-paid fee, and 52.0% of them also offered free rent.

How do I calculate net effective rent? Multiply the gross rent by the months you pay, then divide by the lease months. With a $4,000 gross rent and one month free on a 12-month lease, the net effective rent is $4,000 × 11 ÷ 12 = $3,667, an 8.3% discount. That was the median discount among the 1,010 offers we parsed.

Do new buildings in NYC offer free rent? More often than older ones. In buildings built in 2015 or later, 12.9% of apartments listed September 12 to October 12, 2026 advertised free rent (655 of 5,087), against 5.4% in older buildings. In buildings with 200 or more units, the share was 13.3%.

How long is the lease when NYC landlords offer free months? Of the 1,024 offers that stated a lease term, 41.8% were for 12 months and 57.9% were longer, most often 18 months (255 offers) or 24 months (87). One month free on a 12-month lease was the most common single offer, on 211 apartments.

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