The Hamptons rental market has always been expensive. But this year, it’s in another stratosphere entirely.
A 12.2-acre peninsula estate in Water Mill is asking a mighty $2.5 million to rent from Memorial Day through Labor Day, making it the priciest summer rental the East End has ever seen.
The property at 70 Cobb Lane sits on a private peninsula on Mecox Bay and spans roughly 28,000 square feet across three levels, with 11 bedrooms and 14 full bathrooms. There’s also an astonishing amenity list: a 14-seat movie theater, a two-lane bowling alley, a 750-gallon shark tank, a professional gym, a half-court basketball court, an indoor pool, a spa with a sauna and a steam room and a pool house encircled by a moat.
Renters who can’t swing the full season can take just July for $1.25 million, or August through Labor Day for $1 million.
And brokers say that’s just the going rate these days.
Preston Kaye, co-founder of Hedgerow Exclusive Properties and the mansion’s listing broker, said the property has found takers before.
“The property has rented successfully in prior summer seasons and has consistently attracted strong interest from qualified tenants seeking a premier turn-key estate, in a prime part of the Hamptons,” Kaye told The Post.
As for this year, he added: “There has already been meaningful interest this season. Given the rarity of the offering and the level of demand for turnkey, amenity-driven estates, we expect interest to remain competitive.”
It isn’t alone at the top of the market. A 9,795-square-foot oceanfront estate at 96 Further Lane in East Hampton rented for $1.5 million for the season. Another property at 408 Further Lane, also in East Hampton, is asking $1.95 million Memorial Day through Labor Day. And 111 Beach Lane in Wainscott is listed at $1.45 million for the full summer, with July alone priced at $575,000.
James Keogh, who leads the Atlantic Team at Douglas Elliman said what’s happening this year reflects years of inventory tightening at the high end finally catching up with demand.
“It’s more of the old Hamptons,” he told The Post. “A lot of the high-end properties really taking off started with sales, and because there’s a lack of inventory at the high end, it continued with rentals.”
Keogh said his team has been talking about this being the best rental market since the pandemic frenzy of 2021, when prices briefly doubled before pulling back.
“This is a resurgence of a lot of those numbers, and higher than those numbers,” he said.
Perhaps most telling is how early serious renters are moving. The best properties, Keogh said, were gone by January and February.
“If you want an oceanfront, you may only have 10 homes that fit the bill in January, and by March, there might only be four,” he said. “Early bird gets the worm with the good rental inventory at the high end, especially.”
“Demand has been immediate, the season started early, and there’s very little negotiating at the high end,” Erica Grossman of Douglas Elliman added.
The forces driving this aren’t entirely local. Keogh pointed to geopolitical uncertainty, with the ongoing conflict involving Iran prompting wealthy travelers to reconsider European vacations.
“A lot of times I see cancellations of trips to places, somewhere like a Greece or Israel,” he said. “People are not willing to travel there this summer like they were.”
That redirected demand, he said, tends to pour into domestic destinations like the Hamptons. Add in the US Open and the FIFA World Cup coming to New York this summer, and the pull east becomes even stronger.
The million-dollar-per-month price point, once rare enough to make headlines on its own, has quietly become something closer to standard for the top tier.
“The million dollar mark has become a much more common thing than it was,” Keogh said. “It was a big news story probably four or five years ago, and now it’s much more common to see those million-dollar price marks.”
He noted that properties like 18 Sarah’s Way in East Hampton, an 11-bedroom, 16,000-square-foot estate, rented for $1 million for the full season and is now fully booked.
Keogh was candid that some of the most aggressive pricing may be aspirational, a product of owners testing the market after watching the best homes disappear fast. But the direction of travel is not in doubt.
“I just see the prices continuing to go up,” he said. “Not a lot of sellers, and a lot of people are happy to rent July and August and use their houses the fringe months. It becomes a really nice investment.”
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