Victoria Alexander on South Brooklyn’s Disappearing Small Landlords

Victoria Alexander started Realty Collective 21 years ago, and she has spent the time since selling and advising across South Brooklyn, including Red Hook. That is long enough to see the market go through several cycles. Lately she has been watching something she says is easy to miss in the city’s housing debate: the small, family-owned landlords are leaving.

A front-row seat to the exodus

Victoria describes the pressure on small owners as cumulative. Property taxes are up and utility costs are climbing. Tenant protection legislation and the FARE Act have added obligations, and together these have made holding a building harder to justify. The owners most affected are the ones she calls legacy landlords: people who inherited a building from their parents, or who lived alongside their tenants. More of them, she says, are choosing to sell.

A recent Red Hook deal shows how it plays out. The owner had relocated to the West Coast and was renting the home out furnished from a distance. When an off-market offer came in, selling won out over managing regulations and maintenance remotely. In Alexander’s experience, owners without the time, money, or proximity to absorb the administrative load of landlording in New York are leaving the same way.

What she says renters lose

For Victoria, the change goes beyond rent. A family landlord often benefited from tenants who shoveled the snow, reported problems early, or collected mail during vacations. None of that appears on a balance sheet, but it kept buildings running and costs down. An investor focused on revenue pays contractors to do the same work and builds the cost into rent.

Why she says people can’t move

Victoria also points to a problem beyond supply. Renters are staying put even when their homes no longer fit, because moving means a higher rent. She described families with two or three children in two-bedroom apartments. That lack of turnover keeps listings scarce, in both rentals and sales, even when demand is strong.

She adds that high interest rates, heavy property taxes on new construction, and expired developer incentives have slowed building since the first wave in areas like Gowanus. She hopes the current city administration will take on property tax reform, which she calls highly inequitable.

The product she says is missing

Victoria thinks developers are misreading the neighborhood. New projects lean toward luxury finishes, but she sees local demand for simpler, more affordable homes. In her words, the entry-level apartment is missing from the market. In Red Hook, she says, new construction often seems pitched at buyers from outside the area, so units can sit unsold. Her argument is that plainer buildings could deliver comparable profit with less risk, because they match what local buyers can afford.

Her take on climate risk and neighborhood character

Victoria knows Red Hook’s flood exposure well, and she distinguishes sea-level rise from cloudburst events that overwhelm the sewers. Newer buildings meet updated flood standards, which reduces risk for buyers. She also sees the exposure as a natural filter: buyers who are risk averse stay away, and those who come accept the risk knowingly, which she believes builds a more committed community.

Where she stands on the platform wars

Victoria is also following the fight among Zillow, StreetEasy, and Compass over private listings. She is critical of it, arguing that the platforms rely on fear-driven marketing when they should be educating consumers. In her view, buyers and sellers end up with fewer options, and smaller brokerages and their clients bear the cost in lost visibility.

About Victoria Alexander

Victoria Alexander is the founder of Realty Collective, a Brooklyn-based brokerage serving South Brooklyn neighborhoods including Red Hook.

Source: Based on KeyCrew’s interview with Victoria Alexander (original article). General information only, not legal, financial, or real estate advice.