The most expensive residential deal in Manhattan last week stood out as a bolt of energy in a pandemic-weary market.
“This deal happened incredibly quick,” said Raymond Dillulio of the Eklund Gomes Team at Douglas Elliman, who represented the owner of unit 2 at 24 Leonard Street. “The buyer came on a Friday, came back with her kids on Saturday, we negotiated the deal on Sunday and the contract was back by Friday.”
The five-bedroom property, which was listed in June, was last asking $19.995 million, according to the latest weekly market report from Olshan Realty. At 4,859 square feet, that’s $4,115 per square foot. The seller had purchased the property last year for $9.7 million and invested $1 million into landscaping work. (A garden at the property features an outdoor kitchen and 8-foot-long spa.)
The property was one of 14 priced above $4 million to go into contract last week, the report said. It’s the same number as the week before but five fewer than during the same time period last year.
“I would rank this as a decent week for the pandemic plus Columbus Day,” said report author Donna Olshan, who tracks luxury sales in Manhattan. “It just seems like the market is trying to hang in there; it wants to come back.”
The second-pricest deal was for unit 2G at 443 Greenwich Street, which was listed in August for $8.495 million.
The 3,022 square-foot property has three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and a 42-foot great room. Eric Brown of Compass, who represented the seller, said the buyers were local New Yorkers who visited the property on two or three occasions.
“It was my busiest listing,” Brown told Olshan, noting that the property had been extensively renovated. “I showed it three of four times per week and we had multiple offers.”
Deals have been slowly picking up in Manhattan after a weak third quarter, but the numbers are still lagging behind last year and the virus remains a threat.
Downtown has proved a bright spot, with units in Lower Manhattan grabbing the No. 1 spot in 17 of the 31 weeks since mid March.
“The sales that we’re seeing now are the New Yorkers betting on the home team,” Olshan said, “but we still don’t have the foreign market back.”