Vacation home sales in the Hamptons are finally picking up again. But there’s a catch: megamansions are falling out of favor.
Brokers say rich buyers are increasingly looking for slightly smaller properties that are easier to maintain. “Those great big huge houses from the 1990s and early 2000s, they’re sitting,” Douglas Elliman broker Paul Brennan told Bloomberg. “I think that conspicuous consumption isn’t in vogue these days, and that’s why bigger isn’t better.”
Sotheby’s International Real Estate broker Beate Moore added that a giant home “almost suggests an alienation factor between families, where everybody is in their own wing.”
Buyers are still keen on signs of luxury though, such as swimming pools and home cinemas. And buyer appetite is increasing. In the second quarter, 48 Hamptons properties sold for $5 million or more, according to Miller Samuel — the highest total since early 2016.
“We’re coming out of a really down market,” Moore said. “It was very frustrating. But the market has picked up, and we’ve seen a surge of huge sales.” [Bloomberg] — Konrad Putzier