Commercial building sales slow in 2Q

The sales volume of Manhattan commercial buildings excluding multi-family fell by two-thirds in the second quarter from an already low rate seen in the prior three-month period, a new investment sales report released today from Eastern Consolidated says.

The total value of building sales fell 70 percent, to $509 million through 46 property sales in the second quarter, compared with $1.7 billion through 67 trades in the first quarter, the report said. Two years ago in the second quarter of 2007, there were more than 250 buildings with a combined value greater than $15 billion that traded, the data shows.

“Opportunities in the distressed debt market are starting to surface as some banks look to shed unwanted assets now that the gap in pricing expectations between note sellers and buyers is clearly narrowing,” the report says.

The multi-family market, in contrast, improved in volume in the second quarter, although average price-per-square-foot fell. Total volume rose to 66 buildings valued at $254 million, up from a quarter earlier when 54 buildings sold for a combined $194 million, the brokerage report says.

The average price-per-square-foot fell to $260 in the second quarter from $296 in the first, about where the market was in mid-2008, the report says. TRD