I find it crazy when rent goes up but they're still offering new renters a month+ off and then when you talk to the front office they're like "we don't negotiate". Well, one of us tried.
It isn't crazy, the value of the apartment is related to how high the rent is.
Think like this, if their asset is worth 400x the rent they would rather increase rent and give you temporary rebates than to ever reduce rent. Reducing rent by 100$ would cost them $40k, not something they would wanna do.
Is this really true? Any sane person buying a business or evaluating creditworthiness looks at revenue and expenses, not just "mmm ok 400x rent" and call it a day.
Think like this, if their asset is worth 400x the rent they would rather increase rent and give you temporary rebates than to ever reduce rent. Reducing rent by 100$ would cost them $40k, not something they would wanna do.