New condos cool in Brooklyn, but hold steady in Manhattan

January demand for luxury units up 33% from pre-pandemic average

From left: Extell's Gary Barnett with 217 West 57th Street, Related's Jeff Blau with 450 Washington, 300 West 30th Street and Fortis' Jonathan Landau Olympia Dumbo
From left: Extell's Gary Barnett with 217 West 57th Street, Related's Jeff Blau with 450 Washington, 300 West 30th Street and Fortis' Jonathan Landau Olympia Dumbo (Extell, Related, Fortis)

 

New York City’s new condos — the vanguard of build, style and price — are finding their footing.

The number of new Manhattan condos sold in January ticked down to land around monthly average sales recorded between 2015 and 2020 according to Marketproof’s monthly report. Overall activity tanked in recent months from the highs in the pandemic years, but some of the city’s trophy projects made up ground with a bump in high-dollar deals. 

Sponsors in the borough put 104 units into contract in January, nearly equal to December’s total. The market continued to rebound from a low in October of 74 new contract signings.

Extell Development led luxury deals with a five-bedroom apartment at Central Park Tower that last asked $63.5 million, or about $9,500 per square foot. Manhattan took the lion’s share of deals asking $4 million or more, with 30 of 32 contracts. 

High prices left room to negotiate, according to Marketproof CEO Kael Goodman, who said the difference between asking and closing prices was 14.9 percent.  

“Pricing at certain projects in Manhattan was set in a different interest-rate environment,” Goodman said. 

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Related Companies notched seven new contracts at 450 Washington in Tribeca. 300 West 30th Street in Chelsea took home 10. The buildings are 15 and 20 percent sold, respectively.

Median prices for new condos in Manhattan rose two percent above pre-pandemic levels to $1,994 per square foot, while overall median prices fell five percent, to $1.99 million.In Brooklyn, asking prices increased 13 percent — to a median $995,000, and $1,231 per square foot — but the number of new contract signings sat well below the pre-pandemic average.

“Brooklyn is cooling,” said Goodman. “The big stuff is largely sold.” 

As a measure of weakened demand in the borough last month, new condos made less revenue than a pre-pandemic average — despite a massive contract at Fortis Property Group’s Olympia Dumbo for $17.5 million.

CIM Group and LIVWRK pulled in six new contracts at 111 Montgomery Street in Crown Heights, which is 77 percent sold after four years. Extell’s 481-unit Brooklyn Point notched four new contracts, with more than half of inventory sold after nearly five years.

In Queens, Chinese developer ZD Jasper has sold nearly 15 percent of units at a ground-up project at 45-30 Pearson Street in Long Island City, while a condo conversion in Forest Hills, which landed developer Pinnacle Group in hot water, notched four contracts last month. The median asking price for a new condo in Queens was $795,000, or $1,424 per square foot.

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