The new apartment buildings all seem to be offering a month’s free rent as an incentive to renters.
We recently noted that EnV was the first “two months’ free rent” offer that we’ve seen recently, but we have been seeing one-month offers from a number of older buildings in recent months.
The latest offer to come to our attention is from McClurg Court, 333 W Ontario – a month’s free rent on 12-month leases of selected convertible and one-bedroom units. That’s in addition to a “Look and Lease Special” waiving the “administrative / application fee” for renters who fill out an application within 24 hours of their first visit.
In the above aerial photo you can see the two towers of McClurg Court (arrows), The Streeter and Streeter Place immediately beyond, and 420 East Ohio and Onterie Center just east of them. The recently-opened 500 Lake Shore Drive is within a few minutes’ walk. You can find links to all of the Streeterville high-rise apartment buildings on our at-a-glance list of Near North apartments.
Is the downtown Chicago apartment market beginning to soften, or are existing buildings just trying to remain competitive with the recently-opened new ones? If you tell me that’s not an either / or, I won’t necessarily disagree.