Talk about seller’s remorse. Had the owner of the penthouse at 101 West 87th Street sat tight for just a few months longer, they might be $2 million richer. And that seller is hardly alone – an analysis by The Real Deal found that the 10 most lucrative Manhattan flips netted flippers over $11 million in the past year.
There were 34 “arm’s length” condo flips in the city for properties worth more than $300,000, according to data from the city’s Department of Finance analyzed by The Real Deal. The data details condos in Manhattan buildings with 11 units or more, purchased between July 2014 and June 2015. Buyers sold those condos within the same year.
The top 10 flips in that period netted sellers a combined 26 percent profit on their initial investment. The biggest profit came from a $10 million penthouse, at Bazbaz Development’s 101 West 87th Street on the Upper West Side. The enterprising buyer sold the four-bedroom home 127 days after closing on the unit, collecting a tidy $2.2 million profit.
The top 10 Manhattan condo flips between July 2014 and June 2015, in order of recorded profit (click to enlarge)
The next four most profitable flips were all at Related Cos. and HFZ Capital Group’s One Madison, at 23 East 22nd Street in the Flatiron District. The units – including two 14th-floor apartments sold by owner Michael Wolf for a combined $8.8 million – netted their owners a total profit of $5.2 million, or a 31 percent markup, mere months after the initial purchases.
Only one other building in the city saw more short-term flips than One Madison – CBSK Ironstate’s the Jefferson, at 211 East 13th Street in the East Village, which had five such deals worth $8.5 million. The flips netted sellers almost $1.7 million in profits, an average markup of 20 percent.
Other notable deals include a $5.6 million flip at The Sugar Loaf Building, at 155 Franklin Street in Tribeca. The seller was none other than “Lord of the Rings” heartthrob Orlando Bloom, who made an $850,000 profit on the three-bedroom condo he bought last year.