Chinatown

Manhattan

Chinatown spreads around Canal and Mott Streets in Lower Manhattan, one of the densest and most active neighborhoods in the city. Housing is overwhelmingly prewar tenement walk-up, in compact apartments above a near-constant street market. It is central, intensely walkable, and more attainable than the downtown neighborhoods that surround it.

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Photo: Maëlick (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Lay Of The Land

Chinatown occupies the blocks around Canal, Mott, and East Broadway, a dense and long-established neighborhood that has expanded over the decades into the edges of Little Italy and the Lower East Side. Its streets are among the busiest at ground level in the entire city, lined with markets, restaurants, and shops, and its buildings are tightly packed tenements that rarely rise above six stories. The energy here is constant and distinctly its own.

The housing is overwhelmingly prewar walk-up. Narrow tenement buildings hold compact apartments, many in original or lightly renovated condition, with railroad layouts and ground-floor commerce below. Elevators, doormen, and outdoor space are rare, and the trade for that is some of the more attainable rents in Lower Manhattan.

Transit is among the deepest downtown. The 6 stops at Canal, the N, Q, R, and W and the J and Z meet nearby, the B and D run under Grand, and the F is a short walk east, so the station cluster around Canal Street reaches most of the system. Little of the city is hard to get to from here.

The markets, the restaurants, and the parks at Columbus and Sara D. Roosevelt give the neighborhood its texture, with the rest of Manhattan and Brooklyn both a short walk or ride away. Chinatown suits someone who wants to be at the center of downtown at a lower rent, who values walkability and street life and does not need a doorman building or much space.

Market Pulse

What renting in Chinatown looks like right now, from listings active on Sidewalk.

Median asking rent$3,000/moeven with Oct 2026
Active listings1on Sidewalk today
Days on market18median, listings leaving in the last 90 days
1 BR$3,000/mo median
Median asking rent by bedroom, Jun to NovEach month, the median of what listings on the market that month were asking, from their price history on Sidewalk.
$0$2k$4k$6k$8kJunJulAugSepOctNov
  • 1 BR$3,000/mo
  • 2 BR$4,240/mo
  • 3+ BR$6,145/mo
  • Hollow: fewer than 5 listings that month

Asking rents among listings active on Sidewalk, updated November 14.

Nearby restaurants

A taste of where to eat around Chinatown.

Buildings In Chinatown

20 total

Live Listings In Chinatown

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