NYC’s co-op buyers increasingly turn to trusts for privacy, estate benefits

New York City’s notoriously rigid co-op boards are slowly opening their doors to trusts.

More than ever, New York City’s homebuyers are buying co-ops through trusts in an effort to preserve wealth, maintain privacy and avoid the city’s backlogged probate courts.

Over the past decade, the share of residential co-op buyers that were either trusts or LLCs increased to 5 percent from 2.4 percent in 2016, according to an analysis of city records by The Real Deal from April 25, 2016 to April 25, 2026. 

The bulk of the increase stemmed from trusts, which co-op boards are more likely to approve, sources said. Since 2016, the share of purchases via trusts climbed from 1.1 percent to 3.7 percent. Meanwhile, co-op buys through LLCs inched up from just 1.2 percent to 1.4 percent over the same period.

Traditionally, co-op boards were loath to greenlight purchases through other entities; buyers had to use their names only. Now, co-op boards have been getting more requests to use trusts to purchase apartments, said Lisa Simonsen, a broker with Brown Harris Stevens.

“Times are changing,” she said. “As [trust purchases] become more common, the shareholders don’t want to lose value in their properties.”

Trusts offer buyers several key advantages. Chiefly, they allow for greater privacy when records become public. However, a buyer will need to show a co-op board who is behind a trust and who will live in the unit, said Stuart Saft, a real estate attorney.

There are also tax and estate planning benefits. If a co-op owner were to die, the co-op, if bought through a trust, would not have to go through New York’s backed-up probate courts. This allows for the owner’s heirs to sell the co-op right away if they want, Saft said.

While co-op boards have become more open to purchases via trusts, they still tend to be more wary of LLCs, which are a common purchasing vehicle for high-end condos. An LLC’s ownership can transfer more easily without a co-op board’s knowledge, Saft said.

Additionally, about two decades ago, federal regulations expanded to open the door for more co-ops to be purchased through entities, Saft said. However, behavior shifts do not happen overnight.

“It takes time for people to realize that this is available to them,” Saft said. “And then it takes even more time for boards to permit it.”

It is likely the use of trusts and LLCs to buy co-ops, especially high-end units, will pick up. On the luxury end of the spectrum, demand for homes in New York has remained sky-high, while new development inventory has been tight. Co-op sales have been on the rise over the past year after they had fallen off following the buying frenzy during the tailend of the pandemic. In 2025, there were more than 12,200 sales, a 4.5 percent increase compared to the year before, and so far this year, purchases are on pace to match that. 

Simonsen, the broker, said many buyers are again falling in love with the look of buildings designed by Rosario Candela, the famed architect behind some of the Big Apple’s most luxurious co-op buildings. Co-ops also offer buyers more bang for their buck, she said.

“You get larger spaces, you may be getting the pre-war feeling, the fireplace, the high ceilings,” she said. “Stylistically, it’s becoming more popular.”