Year-high 60 Manhattan luxury contracts signed as travel ban lifts

As the international travel ban lifted, so did Manhattan’s luxury home market.

Sixty contracts for homes asking at least $4 million were signed last week, the most in 2021.

Altogether the asking prices were $553.8 million, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report. That’s the highest weekly total in more than eight years. This year’s busiest week had been in October, with 50 contracts and asking prices totaling $484 million.

The record holder remains a week in December 2013 when 72 contracts for homes asking $576 million were signed.

A federal travel restriction from certain countries lifted Nov. 8, but if that spurred last week’s deals, it was because of the threat of competition, not foreign buyers themselves.

Donna Olshan, the report’s author, said the deals did not reflect an influx of foreign money. Foreign buyers are coming, but she said it will take “a little while for them to marinate through the system.” According to her, last week’s haul was powered by domestic buyers, eager and confident in New York, plus “a raging stock market.”

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It was also a big week for co-ops. Last week’s 16 co-op contract signings were the most since 2010, when Olshan began tracking such deals. The previous record was 14 in mid-March 2017.

The most expensive listing to find a buyer was a 4,565-square-foot condo at 15 Central Park West. The four-bedroom apartment’s living room, library and master bedroom face Central Park. The owner, Andrea Kerzner, daughter of late hotel magnate Sol Kerzner, bought the condo for $18 million in 2008. It was last asking $35 million.

The second priciest was a penthouse at Extell Development’s 1010 Park Avenue, a 15-story building with just 11 units. The penthouse spans 6,745 square feet and has a 479-square-foot terrace. It was asking just under $35 million.

The median asking price across all 60 deals was $6.9 million and the average discount from the original ask to the final one was 6 percent, up slightly from 4 percent the week before.