Jonathan Abbou

He was extremely helpful in our process to find an apartment. We felt like he worked hard to look for apartments that fit the qualities we were looking for. He is a broker you can trust to find you a great apartment, and the majority of apartments he showed us were fantastic for their price point.

Jonathan was terrific - highly recommend. In two whirlwind days of touring, we saw about 25 apartments in at least five neighborhoods of Manhattan, and he quickly helped me narrow down my choices and see what my money would buy in various locales. He was extremely courteous and friendly throughout, and a good guy to chat with while walking extensively in and around the Village. He was attentive to which factors I found important and continually updated our tour to hone in on the right apartment, while still showing me enough breadth and variety that I felt totally comfortable with my decision when we were finished. With his help and some good luck, I signed a lease on my third day. I will definitely work with Jonathan again next time I need an apartment in the city.

For those of you who want to skip the rest of my long review: Jonathan Abbou from Citi Habitat is wonderful to work with and I highly recommend him for your apartment search adventure. :)

Anyone can relate to the high stress from apartment hunting, but it's even worse when a building management messes up and you have only 1 week to find an apt.

I was extremely exhausted and worried when I first met up with Jonathan. (He was calm and friendly albeit waiting out in the -10 deg weather for 10 mins.) Throughout the next hour we saw a few apartments that he had researched ahead of time and informed me about the pros and cons of each. Before I left for another appointment he promised he'd do his best to help me get through this fiasco and find an apartment I love.

A couple days later he spent an entire day showing me more apartments, and by the end I was struggling to choose from 2 apartments because both were so great! I didn't think I could find anything that I like within such tight time frame - and Jonathan managed to find a few of them. (Or maybe I was just lucky hah.) He actually suggested me getting the cheaper one (which would've led to less money for him) based on what he thought mattered to me.

Overall it was a very enjoyable experience working with Jonathan. Make sure you're open and honest with him about what you want and your criteria - I know he'd work his magic to provide you great apartment options!

I may not have ended up renting an apartment from Jonathan, but it was not for want of effort. In many ways I was somewhat of a nightmare client. I was living at home so I was not under any pressure to move out by a certain date, and I had a very particular aesthetic vision (pre war, beamed celings, fire place, casement windows -- the works). These two factors made me rather unwilling to compromise. In spite of my obstinate nature, Jonathan patiently escorted me up and down the streets of the village for three consecutive weekends -- essentially spending three whole Sundays of his life helping me to chase my white whale. In the course of this search I saw a ton of great apartments within my price range and with many of the elements I was looking for. Unfortunately, one perfect apartment Jonathan founded for me ended up getting rented out from under me by the time I withdrew deposit money and made my way back to the broker's office. After that, I found myself even further emboldened by the knowledge that the perfect apartment was out there, and thus became even less flexible. Still, Jonathan stuck with me -- never expressing frustration as we visited apartment after apartment. He was selfless in his advice -- suggesting that I go for apartments which would have resulted in a smaller brokers fee for him (co-broke etc), but which would have been better for me. At the end of the day, I stumbled across an exclusive online which I ended up taking, but my time with Jonathan was not in vain. Without having been shown such a fantastic range of apartments I would not have realized what an opportunity my apartment was when I saw it, and I would not have had the confidence to act quickly and secure the place. My only regret is that the broker's fee went to someone who did not put in the fantastic effort Jonathan did. I hope one of you reads this review, decides to use Jonathan, and opts to rent the first apartment he shows you. Then the time he spent with the two of us will average out, and I will feel less guilty about not being able to compensate him for his much valued time.

I cannot recommend Jonathan highly enough!

I was faced with relocating from Toronto to NYC and although I knew a bit about NY apartments, the idea of having to find one for myself was daunting. A few weeks before I planned to come down, I reached out to Jonathan based on one of his listings and his many good reviews. In the weeks leading up to my NYC trip, he sent me listings within my budget and from the particular areas I wanted to live in. It was great to see what was out there and it prepped me for what to expect when I came down to look.

We met at his west village office and from there we must have seen a dozen or so apartments. The great thing about Jonathan is that I never felt pressured or that I was being ‘sold’ something. It’s a huge undertaking finding an apartment and the pressure of being guided around the city by someone I didn’t click with was one of my big concerns. Incredibly personable and patient, he answered all of my questions not only about the apartments in general, but also about the entire broker process. As many non-New Yorkers, this was my first time using a broker and I had a great deal of questions that he answered without reservation.

When I found the apartment I wanted (amazing Chelsea 1-bedroom) he and Citi Habitats office manager Kenneth Wong really took care of absolutely everything. Even after the apartment had been confirmed, Jonathan followed up to ensure that everything was in order.

I am so lucky to have had Jonathan to help me through what could have been a very stressful process and I absolutely recommend him to anyone looking for a New York home.

Finding an apartment in NYC isn't fun. My fiance and I moved from SF where you can just go on Craigslist and find a place. There are some brokers there too, but I never had to use one, so at first I was annoyed I even had to use a broker - but NYC is huge, and I had no idea what I was doing!

That's when Jonathan stepped in. He responded right away to my fiance's email and scheduled viewings that evening, Friday and Saturday. We couldn't meet Thursday evening, but he didn't pressure us, he just said he had great apartments to show on Friday too, so not to worry.

That Friday he showed us 3 incredible places (we were working with 2 other brokers from other companies and they were very nice, but didn't show us what Jonathan did). He listened to what we wanted, and took pictures of the places and sent them our way before we even met! That's going the extra mile. But, this is where Jonathan really set himself apart. I truly felt like he cared about us as a couple, our needs for our apartment and helped us make the RIGHT decision, not the most expensive decision. We ended up choosing a great apartment that day, and this is after we started filling out paperwork for the more expensive apt. He could tell that we were really maxing out budget out for this other apartment and he pulled me aside and said "that apartment is really great, but you don't need to spend that much. You shouldn't spend all your money on your apartment, you should save it for your wedding, new york, whatever" and he said this knowing he would make a much smaller broker's fee. Anyway, he reassured us that we were making the right decision, and he was soo soo patient with us - we deliberated a lot! Merci Beaucoup Jonathan, Tu est vraiment le meilleur!

Jonathan is AMAZING!! He helped me find an apartment in the East Village that is perfect for my husband, kids and dog and in less than 2 weeks, I had keys in my hand.

He is very dedicated to his clients and always accessible, even at 10:30 at night! He took me to see several apartments all within my budget as well as any listings I found myself.

Jonathan even went the extra step to accompany me when filling out my lease application as well as ran back and forth between my office and the Management company's office to bring me the lease to be signed and take it back and then even made a third trip back with keys to my new front door!

I highly recommend Jonathan to anyone who is looking for an apartment anywhere in Manhattan. He listens to your needs and never pressures you into looking at a place that he knows you could not afford. He is personable, smart, patient, clever and always has his clients best interest in mind.

I'd give him 10 stars if I could!!

Jonathan went above and beyond to help my wife and I find the perfect apartment. He made the whole experience a pleasure and I highly recommend him.

I called Jonathan in somewhat of a panic at 10:30PM after finding him on nakedapartments.com and seeing that he answers his cell phone between 8PM and Midnight. He picked up right away and by 2PM the next day he had 5 apartments lined up to show me that met my criteria. He was very thoughtful, understanding, and efficient throughout the entire process. He managed to help my mom and me understand the 'bang for your buck' in New York City and showed us all of the options that fit within our budget. In the end he led me to my perfect apartment in the West Village - it fit all of my criteria, I was able to move in immediately, and I absolutely love it.

There is no way I would have been able to find this apartment on my own without Jonathan, especially being new to the NY area from Colorado.

Jonathan was wonderful to work with. I confidently recommend him to any one who is about to embark upon an NYC apartment search. It is not an easy process and he made it go as smoothly as possible.

Jonathan was so helpful and kind from the beginning, actually he had an important role for us to book this apartment. He seemed very trustful and based on that feeling we decided to pay a higher amount compared to our budget and booked this apartment. And after the booking we realised that we were right about Jonathan, he was very helpful, did everything that he promised. I have aready suggested him to 2 friend panning a trip to NY in July.