Charles Dickens’ words from the 19th century could apply to 21st century New York real estate. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Right now residential homes are faring badly in the real estate market, but commercially the situation looks far better.
From 2013 to the present, approximately 16,200 residential condominium units (within 682 newly constructed buildings) were completed in NYC. Today, only three quarters of these have been sold. There are approximately 4,100 apartments – many in luxurious buildings – that are still for sale. This number does not even account for the sales over units currently under construction. There have been some drops in prices of units in towers and these figures could drop even further.
Tactics from past cycles could also be making a comeback: bulk sales of unsold units to investors, condos converting to rentals en masse, and multimillion-dollar “rent-to-own” options for sprawling apartments — a four-bedroom, yours for just $22,500 a month. The slowdown is uneven and some projects are faring better than others, but for well-heeled buyers there is no shortage of discounts and sweeteners to be had.
Commercially however, the situation looks far better. There have been quite a few impressive real estate transactions in the area. Examples of this include:
- the $7.25 million sale of 2021 Grand Concourse in the Bronx – a 59, 292sq. ft. 11 story building in Mount Hope
- the $63,800 annual rent of 39 West 32nd Street in Manhattan
- the $2.2m annual rent of 83 Maiden Lane in Manhattan.
In addition, Unizo Holdings – a Japanese real estate firm – is selling off the remaining parts of its New York real estate portfolio via CBRE brokerage. HomeGoods retail store located in Mount Kisco has also been sold for $6,829,350. At the time of this publication, the buyer remains undisclosed.