The New York Observer » Condos

Barbarians at the Door: 1-in-3 Condos Bought by Foreigners

Wonder why luxury real estate is so expensive and hard to find these days? Blame the foreigners!

A report from Stribling released Friday gives some hard numbers to something New Yorkers have been complaining for years: foreigners are buying up all the best apartments. According to Crain's, the brokerage claims that about 33 percent of all condo purchasers and 15 percent of all buyers in New York City are from other countries. Read More

Make No Big Plans: The End of the Mega Project Era

Hudson Yards. Atlantic Yards. The Williamsburg waterfront. For the past decade, residential development has been defined by the creation and conversion of soaring condo towers across the city. From Extell’s Ariel twins on the Upper West Side to so many of the Financial District’s former office buildings, this was the way we built, the way we were to live. But the era of the condo project is over Read More

Glass Action: The Condo Since 9/11

One winter evening in 2006, host Martin Bashir’s voice intoned over the opening of Nightline: “Meet the brash, young real estate assassin, selling lavish dream apartments to clients with money to burn.”

The TV screen bled to an earnest-looking Michael Shvo. “When you see a photo of the New York skyline,” the 32-year-old informed us, “these are buildings I made happen.”

And what made Mr. Shvo happen? Read More

God Willing, Brooklyn Bridge Park Will Have Less Condos

If they can reach a compromise on Capital Hill, why not on the Brooklyn waterfront? Read More

Williamsburg, Greenpoint Home Sales Jump—Why?

Surprise, surprise—the new Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel report shows that North Brooklyn home sales have more than tripled during the past year, which is just further evidence of expansion in an area that's growing in popularity with the young people.

Sales in North Brooklyn, which includes Williamsburg and Greenpoint, went from 127 units at this time last year to 402 units in the second quarter of 2011, a significant increase that could partly be attributed to trendy new condo development The Edge. The complex has 565 units and, according to its website, is more than 50 percent sold. Read More

Salesmanship in D Minor: The Real Estate Party Returns, In a Way

Gregory Spock is used to performing librettos before rapt audiences in concert halls from Hartford to Florence. Recently, the 26-year-old has found more intimate venues within the exposed-brick walls of New York townhouses. A Roland keyboard or a baby grand to his right, a pink bow tie around his neck, a songbook in his hands—Verdi always wows `em—Mr. Spock delivers bursts of baroque beauty, all for salesmanship.

Mr. Spock joined Manhattan brokerage Rubicon Property four months ago, after receiving his broker’s license in the winter. He said his new boss liked him for his creativity, which means saving money on those showings.

“A lot of people have food or wine now, but the entertainment isn’t thought out.”

Because who isn’t lulled into signing a multi-million dollar contract by the plaintive moans of Aida?

During last decade’s real estate boom, the real estate party, usually in a newly built condo tower, was a staple of the industry. After the recession hit, nobody could much afford them. Now they seem to be hobbling back, along with the real estate market. Read More

So Very Pre-Lehman: At 41 Bond, $2,500 a Foot

Manhattan's housing market hasn't fully recovered just yet, but you wouldn't know it if you checked out 41 Bond downtown.

The luxury condo building between Lafayette and Bowery streets nearly sold out in only about a month's time, and units are priced north of $2,500 per square foot for just the lower-level apartments, according to The Wall Street Journal. Could it be those foreign buyers looking for pieds-a-terre near the financial district? Read More

Co-ops vs. Condos: Co-ops Winning Again

Co-ops are the dominant form of for-sale housing on our fair isle, more difficult to get into (persnickety boards that have recently gotten that much more uppity) and generally more expensive to buy (bigger down payments and more stringent financial requirements). They account for roughly two-thirds of the Manhattan housing stock, with condos comprising much of the rest.

But, for a while there during the last decade, condos overtook co-ops as the preferred housing choice, maybe due to looser mortgages or just the simple ubiquity of all those gleaming, new towers. This reporter recalls offhand a study done by The Real Deal magazine that showed more than 9,000 condos proposed for Manhattan in 2005 alone—and most of them subsequently got built.

It appears, though, that the dowager has risen. Read More

Four Reasons to Buy a Million-Dollar Condo for the Kids

Graduation season just commenced, which means gifts for grads. In most of the country, that’ll be a new MacBook, maybe a car. Here in Manhattan, it means another Times trend piece about parents buying a $1.15 million condo—complete with rock climbing wall and spa—just for the kids. Why would they do such a thing? Read More

Blue Light Special at One Beacon Court

“There was nothing very special about it,” Warburg broker Richard Steinberg said of his latest sale at One Beacon Court.

Even if this is a very special building. “I guess between 15 CPW and One Beacon, these are the hottest condos in the city,” Mr. Steinberg allowed when The Observer pressed him on the sale. Read More

Mysterious 15 CPW Spread Turns an Unsurprising Profit

Despite the best efforts of the media to map out every buyer at greatest-building-ever 15 Central Park West, there are still those apartments that remain a mystery. Unit 27A is among them.

Purchased a little later than most, in June 2008, this three-bedroom condo was purchased by an anonymous LLC and it has just gone to not one but two LLCs. We smell investment properties! Read More

Williamsburg Loses Its Edge: Banker Buys Penthouse

If the construction of The Edge condominiums on the North Brooklyn waterfront, along with North Side Piers next door, did not seal the fate of Williamsburg As We Know It, then the latest sale in the building certainly has.

The two-towered condo project has been the best selling building in New York through the first half of the year, and helping propel it to that point is Jordan Milman, a former Deutsche Banker trader who left the firm last year to help found a hedge fund. According to The Journal, Mr. Milman and his pals at LibreMax weren't down with the Volker Rule.

Could things get any less hip?

Read More

The Magic Math of the High Line

Well, technically train tracks are still train tracks:

"Normally, the farther you get from the subway the less expensive the housing is," said [Friends of the High Line co-founder Robert] Hammond, who confessed that he rents an apartment in the West Village. "But the closer you are to the High Line, the farther you are Read More

Smoking Ban Comes Home

In 10 days, the new ban on smoking in parks and public plazas will take effect. With rare exception, vast swaths of the city will become off-limits to nicotine lovers. At least you can smoke at home, right?

Back in February, it looked like smoking in your apartment might become harder, too. And now Read More

Today’s East Village: Coldplay Bassist Sells to 20-Something Designer

"Prewar" and "loft" are not the sorts of real estate monikers that often attach themselves to East Village housing stock, larded as the neighborhood is with grotty tenements and grottier college students. But, if such a gem exists, count on a sentimentally soulful guy like Guy Berryman to find it. The Glaswegian bassist for would-be Read More