If you needed further proof that sellers of ultra-luxury homes in Manhattan had asking prices far above market value, direct your attention to the Kleeberg Residence.
The Upper West Side townhouse has been price chopped nearly in half to $22 million, another sign that ultra-luxury sellers will have to flatten some prices to find buyers in a softening market.
The owner, real estate developer Regina Kislin, is now asking $2,018 per square foot, more than 44 percent lower than the initial asking price of $3,636 per foot in 2012, when it was first listed with Douglas Elliman for $40 million. Most recently, the 37-foot wide limestone at 3 Riverside Drive was cut to $36 million and then $27.5 million.
Vandenberg’s Dexter Guerrieri took over the listing from Carol Friedman of Nest Seekers International. Kislin paid less than $10 million for the house in 1995 and spent years renovating the 1899 French Renaissance Revival townhouse.
The five-story home has 18 rooms, four terraces, six bedrooms and nine gas fireplaces. It also has a pool and full gym. Kislin reportedly spared no expense restoring the nearly 10,900-square-foot home, including hand moldings, mahogany floors and paneling and chandeliers from the 1920s.
The price chop isn’t all that surprising — Olshan Realty reported that 2015 saw a 16 percent drop in the number of contracts signed on residential properties $10 million and above, and many sellers of late have cut in an effort to find buyers.
Citywide, the median townhouse price was $5.25 million in 2015, up 28 percent year over year, according to real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel. On the Upper West Side, the average price per foot was $1,911 in 2015, up 18.6 percent from the year prior and up nearly 102 percent from 2006.