A Manhattan loft has been listed for $4 million, but you have to take on a tenant who's paying well below the area's average and has been there for decades

• A loft for sale in Manhattan comes with a tenant who's paying well below the area's average.
• The rent-stabilized tenant is able to keep renewing the lease, even under a new owner.

A loft in Greenwich Village, Manhattan that's been listed for $4 million comes with three bedrooms, "open views" over the area – and a tenant whose rent is well below average.

According to the Compass listing, the tenant in place pays a monthly stabilized rent of $2346.21. Bloomberg reported that under New York City regulations, the tenant is allowed to keep renewing the lease, even if the condo is sold. There are limits to how much the landlord can raise rent each year, too.

The current rent doesn't even cover the maintenance and common charges for the property, listed as $2,802 per month. Monthly taxes are around $5,500.

The current tenant is paying about $40.50 a month per square foot, which is less than half the average for Manhattan rentals, per data prepared by appraisers Miller Samuel for real-estate company Douglas Elliman.

Steven Hochberg, an attorney at Golenbock Eiseman Assor Bell & Peskoe who is representing the sellers, told Bloomberg that the tenant had been there since at least the building's conversion to condos in the early 1980s.

The 5,800-square-foot condo has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, according to the listing, as well as "open views to the north, south and east," though no internal pictures of the property or its views are included.

With its $4 million price tag, the condo works out at about $690 per square foot. Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel put the average selling price for condos in Manhattan at $2,119 per square foot for the first three months of 2023.

The property has been listed for more than two months and is available for "investors only." The realtors describe its listing as a "rare opportunity."

Insider contacted Hochberg and Compass for comment but did not immediately hear back.

The sixth-floor apartment in the same building with five bedrooms sold for $9.5 million in February, City records show. Another, on the 10th floor, sold for $10.75 million in April. The building – 12 East 12th Street – was built in 1907 and has 12 storeys.