<story><title>New York&apos;s vanishing shops and storefronts: &apos;It&apos;s not Amazon, it&apos;s rent&apos;</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/24/new-york-retail-shops-amazon-rent</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>andrewlevine</author><text>Can anyone explain the economics of being a NYC landlord and keeping a property vacant for months or years?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve experienced this in several different neighborhoods I&amp;#x27;ve lived in, but it&amp;#x27;s worst in my current neighborhood (Upper West Side).&lt;p&gt;This article gives some high-level reasons (institutional investors more willing to wait for higher rent, banks devaluing non-chain properties, real estate bubble). But it&amp;#x27;s hard for me to imagine the math works out for leaving a space vacant in NYC for years.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>iakh</author><text>This is a classic example of real option valuation[1].  As others have pointed out, holding out could mean that the owner could charge more later on. The right, but not the obligation, to lease or sell the property has an intrinsic value which can be modeled using different option pricing methods. So long as the value of the option is greater than the current leasing options, then the owner should keep the property vacant.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Real_options_valuation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Real_options_valuation&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>New York&apos;s vanishing shops and storefronts: &apos;It&apos;s not Amazon, it&apos;s rent&apos;</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/24/new-york-retail-shops-amazon-rent</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>andrewlevine</author><text>Can anyone explain the economics of being a NYC landlord and keeping a property vacant for months or years?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve experienced this in several different neighborhoods I&amp;#x27;ve lived in, but it&amp;#x27;s worst in my current neighborhood (Upper West Side).&lt;p&gt;This article gives some high-level reasons (institutional investors more willing to wait for higher rent, banks devaluing non-chain properties, real estate bubble). But it&amp;#x27;s hard for me to imagine the math works out for leaving a space vacant in NYC for years.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brookside</author><text>I believe landlords try to get 10 year commercial leases which is the cause of holding out for the best price they can.&lt;p&gt;This article doesn&amp;#x27;t answer the question directly but it came to mind:  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;31&amp;#x2F;fashion&amp;#x2F;bleecker-street-shopping-empty-storefronts.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;31&amp;#x2F;fashion&amp;#x2F;bleecker-street-s...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>