High-end condo developers are getting desperate for sales

Prices slashed, broker incentives introduced at projects throughout Manhattan

Gary Barnett, the Kent at 200 East 95th Streeton the Upper East Side, 252 East 57th Street in Sutton Place and James Stanton
Gary Barnett, the Kent at 200 East 95th Streeton the Upper East Side, 252 East 57th Street in Sutton Place and James Stanton

The high-end condominium market has gotten so dicey that some developers are tabling their plans to build or delaying their marketing pushes.

The 3,574 condos once slated to hit the market in Manhattan this year are now 38 percent fewer that was was estimated at the beginning of the year, according to Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group data provided to Bloomberg News.

“We’ve never had a buildup of housing inventory that has been so skewed to the high end,” appraiser Jonathan Miller told Bloomberg. “There’s too much development being built at 2014 prices, and that buyer isn’t there.”

Developers who’ve already got units to sell are dropping prices and getting creative to spur momentum.

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Prices have been dropped by more than $2 million on some of the more expensive apartments at World Wide Group and Rose Associates’ 252 East 57th Street. Gary Barnett’s Extell Development has dropped prices by 5 percent at the Kent, at 200 East 95th Street, and at One Manhattan Square on the Lower East Side. At Claremont Group’s 101 Wall, the developers are even giving out $5,000 American Express gift cards to brokers whose clients ink contracts at the project.

Zeckendorf Development even raffled off a weekend at the Miami Beach Edition hotel to brokers who attended the open house showing of a duplex penthouse at 50 United Nations Plaza. The unit has been on the market since 2013 at $70 million.

“The next two years will be the year of the deal,” said Kevin Maloney of Property Markets Group, whose company is purposefully delaying the official sales launch at supertall 111 West 57th Street. “If you have cash, I can’t imagine there’s not a condo project that’s coming out of the ground where you can’t walk into the sales office and say, ‘This is the deal I’m willing to offer.’” [Bloomberg]Katherine Clarke