Knakal sees capital gains anxiety driving strong Q3

The dollar volume of investment sales in New York has seen a “significant” increases this year, as property owners try to beat next year’s anticipated capital gains tax increase, according to Robert Knakal, Massey Knakal Realty Services chairman, Globe St. reported.

The brokerage’s total dollar volume was $7.3 billion in third quarter of 2012 and year-to-date it reported $22 billion in dollar volume. When annualized, MK’s dollar volume is expected to reach approximately $29 billion, a 6 percent increase from $27.5 billion the previous year.

“New York City’s sales market is continuing to follow a generally positive trend since 2009,” Knakal said. “The second quarter of 2011 was a high point, and while things have moderated somewhat since then, there are several bright spots. We fully expect 2012 to finish on an extremely high note.”

A sign of the anxiety over a possible tax increase is the high volume of small deals. MK reported 2,336 property transactions in the third quarter, compared to a total of 2,200 properties that sold last year. “If we annualize what is going on in the first three quarters, we will have over 3,100 sales this year, up 40% from last year, which is very significant,” Knakal said.

Moreover, 948 buildings sold in the city in the third quarter, giving MK the best quarter since the first quarter of 2008, in which there were 951 buildings sold. [Globe St.] — Christopher Cameron