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By Robert Knakal 1/31 3:06pm

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Blitt - Bob Knakal

The Manhattan Review: A Closer Look at How the Submarkets Fared in 2011

As Manhattan always sets the pace for New York City, this week we will take a look at how its leading submarket performed last year.

In 2011, the dollar volume of sales in the Manhattan submarket (defined as south of 96th Street on the East Side and south on 110th Street on the West Side) showed dramatic improvement over 2010 levels. There was $21.7 billion in investment sale transactions last year, up from the $11.6 billion that occurred in 2010, an 87 percent increase.

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By Robert Knakal 1/03 1:30pm

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Robert Knakal.

With Current Tax Rates Ending, Capital Gains Taxes Threaten to Move Markets

Recently, one of the questions I have been asked most frequently is what factor will have the most significant impact on the investment sales market in 2012. Interest rates could have the most profound impact on our market, particularly if they rise more quickly and to a greater degree than most people expect (which is not an outlandish assumption), but I believe taxes will have the biggest impact on market activity, especially the volume of sales. By taxes, I mean capital gains taxes or at least the anticipation of their rising.

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By Sam Chandan 12/08/11 1:00pm

the lead indicator

Sam Chandan

The Retail Recovery: A Work in Progress

Along the most coveted urban corridors and across core regional malls owned by the Real Estate Investment Trusts, retail property fundamentals improved in the third quarter. Modest but observable gains in occupancy rates, rents and sales per square foot in these segments of the retail market contrast with broader metrics, however. Measured across lifestyle and Read More

By Robert Knakal 12/08/11 12:41pm

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Robert Knakal

As the U.S. Economy Goes, So Goes Retail

When we look at the performance of the retail sector of the building sales market, we generally look at how the retail rental market is doing to gain some insight into what can be expected on the sales side. To a large degree, the health of this sector is dependent upon consumer sentiment and, subsequently, Read More

By Robert Knakal 11/08/11 9:19am
Robert Knakal

Outer Borough Investment Sales Mixed

For the past two weeks, the focus has been on the overall investment-sales activity for the third quarter of 2011 along with the market performance on a year-to-date basis. A healthy increase in the dollar volume of sales occurred with $19.2 billion thus far in 2011, up from the $14.2 billion in 2010 and significantly higher than the anemic $6.1 billion in 2009. For some perspective, the volume in 2007, at the peak of the market, was $62.2 billion.

In terms of the number of properties sold, there have been 1,548 traded thus far in 2011. Therefore, the market is on pace for over 2,000 sales this year, which would be up about 22 percent from the 1,690 sales last year and 46 percent ahead of the 1,410 sales that occurred in 2009. Once again, for perspective, there was 5,018 properties sold in 2007 at the peak.

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2 By Robert Knakal 7/28/11 9:12am

concrete thoughts

Blitt - Bob Knakal

Breaking It Down by Borough

In last week’s column, we took a look at the overall New York City building sales market and compared its recent performance with past periods. This week, we will take a similar look at the first half of 2011 (1H11) but will analyze the performance of each individual geographic submarket.

As I have written for some time, we fully expected the Manhattan market to lead the entire marketplace out of the downturn and are indeed seeing this happen. Sales volume picked up in Manhattan before it did in other submarkets, and we are starting to see value appreciation in Manhattan.

In the outer boroughs (including northern Manhattan), sales volume has been lagging and, in some cases, has only recently started to recover. Read More

By Robert Knakal 7/21/11 12:26pm

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pie chart 1

What’s Driving Investment Sales Right Now

During the first half of 2011 (1H11), the dollar volume of investment sales transactions in the New York City market was $12.6 billion. On an annualized basis, activity is on pace to increase by 73 percent over the 2010 total of $14.6 billion.

At face value, this number leads to an extremely optimistic perspective regarding the market’s performance. However, Read More

8 By Robert Knakal 12:09pm

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Blitt - Bob Knakal

Rent Regulations: the Good, the Bad and the Endlessly Ugly

While the recent extension of New York’s rent-regulation system came as no surprise to the vast majority of participants in our multifamily market, the results were still disappointing and have left many owners concerned that if this is the result obtained with a Republican-controlled Senate, what would occur with Democrats in power? Yes, the renewal terms could have been much worse, but that doesn’t diminish the negative implications this has on our housing market.

Let’s take a look at the terms of Chapter 97 of the Laws of 2011 and their potential impact. Read More

By Robert Knakal 6/16/11 4:06pm

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Blitt - Bob Knakal

Lessons Learned and Earned, Part III

The past two weeks, this column has recapped a speech I gave to the local chapter of the CCIM in late April. The speech was an overview of the lessons that I have learned over my 27-year brokerage career, which includes growing Massey Knakal Realty Services. (Part I here and Part II here)

This week will conclude the 30 lessons delivered at that speech.

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By Robert Knakal 6/09/11 1:32pm

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Blitt - Bob Knakal

Lessons Learned and Earned, Part II

Last week, I began reviewing notes from a speech I made before the members of the local chapter of CCIM here in New York City in late April.

The subject of the talk was the lessons I have learned over the years building a brokerage company and selling properties in the most competitive market in the United States.

This week we continue the recap of those lessons.

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By Robert Knakal 6/02/11 4:46pm

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Lessons Learned and Earned, Part I

A couple of months ago, Al Holloman, a broker in our Queens office and a member of the local chapter of CCIM, asked me if I would speak at the upcoming CCIM luncheon in late April. I accepted, but was surprised by the topic the folks at CCIM wanted me to address. Most of the Read More

1 By Robert Knakal 5/26/11 2:04pm

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The Market for Apartment Buildings by Borough

Two weeks ago, this column addressed the state of the New York City multifamily market, and most of the statistics discussed pertained to the entire city-wide market. I received many e-mails and a few calls asking for the data to be broken down on a submarket-by-submarket basis, so here it is.

It is particularly illustrative Read More

By Robert Knakal 4/28/11 1:24pm

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Watch Manhattan Pull the City Out of Recession

As has been the case for more than a century, the Manhattan submarket is once again leading the city out of a real estate downturn. When markets recover, typically the best properties, in the best locations, show positive trends well before secondary and tertiary properties and locations do. And by almost any metric, the Manhattan Read More

By Robert Knakal 4/21/11 3:36pm

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The Investment-Sales Market Going Forward

In the fourth quarter of 2010, the investment-sales market experienced a whopping $5.6 billion in sales activity. This was the highest quarterly total going back to the third quarter of 2008. Going into the fourth quarter of 2010 (4Q10), we were expecting sales volume to be very high given the motivation of banks and special Read More