Developers tapping into walk-up craze

A walk-up building in Manhattan
A walk-up building in Manhattan

In an age of supertall condominiums with outrageous amenities, walk-up apartments continue to hold their own, new data from Citi Habitats reveal. Indeed, the average monthly rent for one-bedroom luxury walk-ups in New York City jumped 5.7 percent over the past year, the data show, while the average monthly rent for one-bedrooms in full-service elevator buildings increased just 0.5 percent.

Walk-ups also enjoyed healthy activity in the sales market: Miller Samuel data show that the number of walk-ups sold over the past year jumped 64 percent, compared to a 22 percent increase for units in full-service buildings. The price of walk-ups has also jumped nearly 22 percent over the year, compared to a 2 percent increase for units in full-service buildings.

“There is a new generation of renters out there who don’t need a doorman, and want something unique and different,” Jordan Sachs, president of residential brokerage firm Bold New York, told the New York Times. “Walk-ups can offer a wonderful combination of old prewar New York mixed with new design, and that can be hard to find in a cookie-cutter doorman building.”

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Some developers, such as Borough Builders, are cashing in on the walk-up craze and building them in lieu of full-service buildings which come up with higher carrying costs and a steeper tax bill. Halstead Property Development Marketing’s Stephen Kliegerman told the Times that “there is an inverse relationship between an apartment’s carrying costs and its price. The lower the monthly basis, the more the buyer can pay upfront.”

In February, Jared Kushner paid $130 million for a 17-building walk-up portfolio in the East Village, as The Real Deal reported. [NYT]  – Hiten Samtani