Rupert Murdoch's penthouse and Baz Luhrmann's townhouse among Manhattan's most expensive rentals

One Madison, #PH, on the rental market for $160,000/month (The Corcoran Group)At the height of the Covid pandemic and lockdown in early 2020, some feared a mass exodus of New York’s wealthiest, possibly to states with lower taxes. However, a recent report by the Fiscal Policy Institute, as reported in The New York Times, found that the opposite took place: Millionaires are coming back, and low- and middle-income New Yorkers are leaving. The report also found that the millionaires who did leave went to other high-tax states (think California, New Jersey, and Connecticut), while working-class New Yorkers who left said the high cost of living, not high taxes, drove them away. And yet, for all that, a study from February 2023 found that millionaire renters in New York City are at an all-time high. A number of factors are at work here. While millionaires are thought to be immune to the pain of rising interest rates, home prices, too, have risen to a point where their dream homes might be unattainable. New York's new “mansion tax” went into effect in summer 2019; there was a rush of closings ahead of the July 1, 2019 deadline to avoid the tax, and it now comes on top of all the other fees that buyers of all stripes are responsible for. Finally, there are lifestyle factors to consider. Some people crave the experience of being able to live in various cities, if not countries throughout their lives, and may not want the responsibility of homeownership, not even with a pied-a-terre. Moreover, a spate of luxurious new private clubs like Fasano Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side and Maison Hudson in the West Village has sprung up, offering fully furnished units, luxurious amenities, white-glove service, and flexible terms allowing for stays as short as 30 days or as long as a year or so. Below, we look at Manhattan's most expensive rental listings on the market as of December 11, 2023. Among them are the $75,000/month Gramercy townhouse of director Baz Luhrmann, which is also listed for sale for $17,995,000, and the Flatiron penthouse of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Mr. Murdoch initially listed it along with a lower-floor staff/guest unit for a total of $78 million in March 2022; while the lower-floor unit sold for $12.5 million in October 2022, the penthouse has lingered on the market to a point where it was reduced by $20 million in May 2023 and was put on the rental market for $160,000/month.

Fifteen Hudson Yards, #PH88A (Compass)

243 East 17th Street, #TH (Corcoran Group)

432 Park Avenue, #66B (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)

988 Fifth Avenue, #PENTHOUSE (Corcoran Group)

Maison Hudson, #6 (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)

56 Leonard Street, #PH56 (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)

100 Vandam Street, #PENTHOUSE (Nest Seekers LLC)

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