St. Regis Penthouse Listing Shatters Houston Record

One penthouse is left for sale at Houston’s forthcoming St. Regis condo project, and the listing price blows the city’s other condo sales out of the water.

The 4,670-square-foot unit is listed for $14.5 million or $3,100 per square foot. It’s one of 90 condos at the 37-story tower planned for 102 Asbury Street at the doorstep of Houston’s exclusive River Oaks neighborhood. The property, which is being developed by Sunny Bathija’s Satya, will feature 40,000 square feet of amenities, including a 20th-floor cognac bar, pool deck with cabanas, spa, and to protect the property from Texas’ notoriously finicky electrical grid, a full-building generator back-up.

Douglas Elliman said the listing boasts the highest price per square foot in the history of Houston condo sales.

Houston Association of Realtors data backs up the grandiose claim. The top 10 most expensive high-rise sales recorded in Houston range in asking price from $4.9 million to $7.5 million, putting prices per square foot at between $421 and $1,290.

A unit at The Huntingdon, at 2121 Kirby Drive, tops the list, according to HAR. The 7,265-square-foot condo was listed for $7.5 million, or just over $1,000 per square foot, when it traded in June 2024.

Satya’s St. Regis project, which is expected to start construction in the first quarter, is part of a branded condo craze taking over Houston. In addition to the St. Regis, other planned projects include a Ritz-Carlton rising in the Woodlands, another Ritz-Carlton planned for the Galleria and Auberge condos coming to Upper Kirby.

The Real Deal partnered with BSH to host a panel on the trend in December at the BSH Experience & Design Center.

Texas luxury buyers have long favored ranches over vertical living, and, as a result, the state’s market for luxury condos is still largely untapped. That’s partly because it’s hard to get condo projects financed in the Lone Star State. Texas is one of about a dozen states that does not allow developers to use deposits from condo presales on construction. In states without those restrictions, deposits can finance up to 30 percent of construction costs, said DC Partners’ Roberto Contreras IV.

The structural challenges mean not much condo inventory exists in Texas metros, but the Houston projects in the pipeline have already started proving the city’s demand for luxury vertical living.
In addition to the price record set at the St. Regis, Randall Davis Company’s London House opened last year in River Oaks with all but two units presold. Up in the Woodlands, Howard Hughes had to temporarily suspend sales for its Ritz-Carlton project because demand was so high. When construction started, 69 percent of the project’s 111 units were presold.