A record number of investment sales properties are projected to sell this year, beating the previous high in 2007, new figures released today by Massey Knakal Realty Services show.
Based on the more than 2,600 property trades so far in the first half of the year, the investment sales firm expects nearly 5,300 sales. The previous high, recorded in the period before the housing market crashed, was 5,018.
“The second quarter picked up where the first quarter left off,” Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal, said this morning at a quarterly media market briefing in the firm’s Midtown office. “The number of properties sold is on pace for an all time record.”
The firm also predicts the total dollar volume to hit $63 billion, eclipsing the 2007 record of $62.2 billion.
He noted that the low interest rate environment continues to support the sales volume.
Along with the high number of trades, the average price per foot has increased over the past year, reaching $421 per foot in the city, up from $388 per foot in 2013. In Manhattan, the average price per foot rose 11 percent to $1,171 in the first half from $1,051 in 2013, the figures show.
In part, investor appetite for outer borough development land is driving overall activity, including a big surprise from Queens.
The number of development parcels that sold in Long Island City in the first half of 2014 was 28, just one fewer than sold in the trendy Williamsburg. The next three outer borough neighborhoods were Bedford-Stuyvesant with 27 sites sold, Crown Heights with 23 and Greenpoint with 22.
