Heath Ledger’s former Soho unit sold for $14M

A morbid piece of New York City movie history has sold in Soho.

The apartment late actor Heath Ledger rented at 421 Broome Street recently traded hands for $14.3 million, the New York Post reported. The 4,400-square-foot unit was purchased last month by an anonymous buyer in an off-market deal.

The apartment is where Ledger was found on Jan. 22, 2008, dead from an accidental overdose of prescription medicine. The Australian actor — who won a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the Joker in “The Dark Knight” — was 28 years old.

Shortly after his death, the building was transformed into condominiums and two stories were added to the property. The unit where Ledger died sold in 2011 for slightly more than $5 million. It was later revealed the apartment was filled with Joker paraphernalia and recordings of Ledger practicing the voice for what became his most iconic role.

The three-bedroom, three-bathroom condo is fully furnished. There’s a great room, a chef’s kitchen with upgraded appliances, exposed brick in the bedroom, sound-insulated windows and a woodburning fireplace.

The building was previously home of another noteworthy sale when an 8,000-square-foot penthouse unit sold in 2021 for $49 million in an off-market deal, flipped only a year after it was purchased for $35 million. The deal was a record for Downtown Manhattan at the time and was brokered by brothers Tal and Oren Alexander, who were at Douglas Elliman at the time.

Condo sales and prices in Manhattan declined in the fourth quarter as inventory tightened, but are ahead of pre-pandemic measures. 

A quarterly report from market analysis firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman showed across the luxury market, defined as the top 10 percent of deals, sales fell year-over-year by 28.5 percent, from 358 to 256. The median sales price rose 4 percent annually to $5.8 million, up from $5.6 million.

— Holden Walter-Warner