Surging demand for luxury New York condominiums

 

Strong demand for luxury New York condominiums.  Buyers snapping up pre-construction property as inventory decreases.

250 West Street

2011 is the comeback year for New York luxury property according to the New York Post.


ONE57, the latest Extell development of 95 condominiums above a Park Hyatt Hotel, is reaching for the sky by asking $7 million for a 1 bedroom and $98.5 million for the penthouse.  Apparently at least one unit has gone into contract priced upwards of $30 million.

ONE57

250 West Street in Tribeca with units priced from $1.5 million to $30 million currently has one third of units in contract.  I was there a few weeks ago and there was only one model apartment ready for showing.  Everything else was in construction mode.  Buyers were buying off the floorplan.  It's been a few years since we've seen this level of demand.

Touraine, a development on the Upper East Side at 65th Street, already has 17 contracts signed out of 22 units and it started marketing only 2 months ago.  Units were priced from $1.3 million to $20 million.  The Laureate in the Upper West Side is now 85% sold at more than $2100 per sqft.

Yes, there is now a housing shortage in New York and it's something unthinkable back in 2008.  Inventory in New York is 14% lower than a year ago according to the Corcoran Group.  Foreigners who bought were  driven by the weak US dollar, low mortgage rates and the fact that New York property is cheaper than in London and most other global cities.

Even Brooklyn is experiencing this boom.  The Edge in Williamsburg sold 275 units this year alone.  Northside Piers already sold 405 of its 450 units.  In Long Island City, TF Cornerstone is building another 3 rental buildings by the waterfront and says its vacancy rate there is less than 1 percent.

If the actions of the ultra wealthy is any guidance, Sandy Weill, former Citigroup CEO, has already found a buyer for his penthouse at 15 Central Park West where the asking was $88 million.  He bought it in 2007 for $44 million.

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Wei Min Tan is Managing Director of Castle Avenue Partners, focused on luxury residential condominium properties and foreign investors.  Wei Min speaks Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin, Malay and has represented clients from Hong Kong, China, Singapore, South America and Europe.  He can be reached at tan@castle-avenue.com