New York’s multifamily market saw one of the largest transactions of the year in September, carrying dollar volume for the sector over the $1 billion mark.
The city saw 33 deals across 78 buildings for $1.02 billion during September, according to Ariel Property Advisors. This was a 10 percent increase in deal volume, a 100 percent increase in building volume and a 139 percent increase in dollar volume compared to last year. It also represents almost half of the dollar volume for New York’s entire third quarter, which saw 115 deals across 186 buildings for $2.23 billion overall.
Manhattan led the way by dollar volume in September with $683.44 million worth of sales, more than half of New York City’s total for the month. The borough saw 10 deals across 11 buildings, respective increases of 43 and 38 percent year over year. Dollar volume shot up by 335 percent, largely due to the $416.1 million sale of 101 West End Avenue from Equity Residential to the Dermot Company and a Dutch pension fund. As of September, that was the largest multifamily deal of the year in Manhattan. The outer boroughs have seen even bigger deals this year, including Brooksville Company and Rockpoint Group’s $905 million acquisition of Starrett City in Brooklyn and Blackstone Group’s $500 million buy of Parker Towers in Queens.
Northern Manhattan was the only part of the city to see year-over-year drops in transaction and dollar volume during September. The area saw just five deals across 10 buildings for $52.17 million. Although this was an 11 percent increase in building volume compared to last year, transaction volume dropped by 17 percent, and dollar volume dropped by 38 percent. The neighborhood’s biggest deal was the estate of Upper East Side landlord Jacques Chretien selling 3440 Broadway in Hamilton Heights to Big City Realty for $18.45 million.
The Bronx multifamily market continued its strong 2018 in September, seeing nine deals across 22 buildings for $121.78 million. These were respective year-over-year increases of 200, 633 and 232 percent. The largest deal was Prana Investments’ purchase of eight multifamily buildings from the Morgan Group for $64.63 million.
Brooklyn saw seven multifamily deals across 33 buildings for $155.78 million. This was a 46 percent drop in sales volume, an 83 percent increase in property volume and a 9 percent increase in dollar volume.
Queens, which has a notoriously slow multifamily market, had a predictably slow September, with just two deals across two buildings for $5.75 million. These low numbers still represented a 100 percent increase from last year in both transaction and building volume and a 19 percent increase in dollar volume.