Rent concessions way up in northwest Qns.

The level of northwest Queens leases with deals like a month without rent shot up dramatically in a year, a report has found.A typical concession, as it is called in the real estate world, is a month of free rent or no brokerage fee. And the amount of leases with concessions in the borough’s northwest section went up to 40.8 percent in July from 7.5 percent a year before.

Douglas Elliman Real Estate released that finding last Thursday along with others in its housing market analysis of last month for Manhattan, Brooklyn and this borough’s northwest section — defined as Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside and Astoria.

The singular rise in leases with concessions during the year leading up to July went way above those of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Those boroughs respectively saw the same number increase by 15.7 and 12.6 percents.

Net effective rent in the portion of Queens analyzed — the median for how much is paid after a concession from a landlord — went up by 5.8 percent to $2,901 in the period.

Median rental prices shot up in northwest Queens by 8.3 percent in the previous year to $2,998, surpassing those of Kings County by $203. Manhattan, where Douglas Elliman found the median rental to be $3,450, and Brooklyn respectively increased in this regard by zero percent and 1.1 percent.

Average rental prices in northwest Queens went up 5.2 percent from July 2016 to $3,059 last month. In this regard, Kings County is more expensive.

According to Paul Halvatzis of the Astoria-based Amorelli Realty, the Long Island City units that have become rentable during the year-long period are a factor in its sharp concession increase.

“As they all hit the market, there’s not enough of a supply of people to absorb them all,” he told the Chronicle. In hopes that the tenant stays, he said, landlords offer competitive concessions with the lease. “Some are giving even an additional concession month,” the realtor added.

Landlords haven’t forgotten the bottom line, though.

As Halvatzis points out, there is a reason that they would make one month free rather than lower the lease’s monthly payments so that tenants save the same amount.

“If the lease renews and let’s say the rental market turns up, they’re increasing the rent based on the higher existing rent,” the broker explained.

Quite a few different variables are at play for rising rents. The L train will be shut down for more than a year starting in April 2019, a factor that Halvatzis says has driven some from a part of Brooklyn to northwest Queens, from where Manhattan is not far via public transit.

“Some of the peoples whose leases have expired have come over from Williamsburg,” he explained. “They’re getting an apartment here.”

Many consider northwest Queens to be gentrifying.

“Much like Brooklyn once did, Queens offers an alternative option for those unwilling to pay those sky-high Manhattan prices,” David Legaz of the Long Island Board of Realtors, a group that includes Queens, said.

Legaz added that he has personally noticed the northwest area’s proximity to Manhattan has drawn many from the eastern part of the borough.

He does not expect a drop in demand for housing in Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside in the immediate future. “I think it’s sustainable for at least the next year or two,” Legaz said.