Renters have started moving into Manhattan’s first legal micro units — but while the apartments are teeny, their prices are super-sized.
Apartments under 400 square feet are still illegal in New York, thanks to a victory housing activists achieved in the 1980s.
But this building — at 335 E. 27th St. — is an exception to that rule.
There are currently seven units still on the market at “Carmel Place,” ranging from a 360-square-foot studio for $2,920 a month to a 265-square-foot studio for $2,570.
That means that a tenant in a 360-square-foot space would pay $35,040 a year for the privilege of living in a Kip’s Bay prefabricated shoebox, where making your bed means shoving it in and out of a wall and over your apartment’s only coffee table.
The developer maximized his profits by squeezing 55 of the miniscule prefabricated units into the nine-story building.
In the case of a third-floor 360-square-foot unit still on the market for $2,920, that price works out to $97 a square foot per year.
And the shoebox units, on the site of a former NYC Housing Authority space, are in an out-of-the-way neighborhood between First and Second Avenues.
A quick search on Streeteasy reveals that this is one of the worst deals in town.
For example, an 808-square-foot one-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom apartment on Billionaire’s Row, in the ritzy, white-glove Metropolitan Tower building at 146 W. 57th St., is currently on the market for $3,700 a month — or $54 a square foot per year.
If two people rented the apartment, they’d each get a bathroom and 400 square feet of living space each — in a luxury building — for $1,850 a month each.
The amenities are better, too.
The 808-square-foot apartment is on the 59th floor. It comes with floor-to-ceiling windows, city views and a marble bath with a Jacuzzi. The building also offers a residents-only Club Metropolitan Restaurant, a gym and a 30th-floor pool. There is on-site parking and even a chauffeur’s “waiting area,” too, according to the listing.
In the past, New Yorkers moved into tiny living spaces to save money.
Author Felice Cohen, a 45-year-old micro-unit pioneer, lived in a 90-square-foot space on the Upper West Side for six years for $700 a month. Her small-living video went viral with more than 9 million hits, and she wrote an e-book about her experience this year. In addition, she used her savings to buy a $300,000, 490-square-foot studio in the same neighborhood.
But paying huge amounts to live in a tiny space only enriches the developer, she said.
“This was my fear when I first heard about these mirco units,” Cohen told The Post of their high prices. “I thought it was great that the city was recognizing that people wanted to experience living in Manhattan and that they were willing to give up space to do so, but not at such a high price. It negates the whole point.
“Many people come to New York to follow their dreams and to try to make it as writers, actors, dancers, financiers, whatever — but how can you do that if you’re working all the time to pay your rent?” she said.
“I moved into that 90-square-foot studio because its small size was affordable and freed up some of my time to write and finish my first book. If you’re giving up space, you should get something — like a better deal — in return. Or else what’s the point?”