Issue 114 - Let’s Talk about Luxury – It’s Lovely at the Top

450 East 52nd Street 11FLDP

1001 Fifth Avenue 110C

260 Park Avenue South 10I

155 West 68th Street 1203

536 2nd Street GARDEN

53 West 53rd Street 24D

53 West 53rd Street #38C

53 West 53rd Street #PH78

320 East 42nd St 2403

1593 Deerfield Road

136 East 56th Street 8H

51 Crosby Street 3

445 Lafayette 110C

53 West 53rd Street #30B

53 West 53rd Street #66

53 West 53rd Street #72B

53 West 53rd Street #21A

53 West 53rd Street #53A

53 West 53rd Street #17B

53 W 53rd St #PH76

53 West 53rd Street #71

53 West 53rd Street #20B

53 West 53rd Street #16F

Issue 114 – Let’s Talk about Luxury – It’s Lovely at the Top

October 1, 2025

The New York City real estate market has entered the fall season with renewed momentum. Sentiment among buyers and sellers remains cautiously optimistic, despite ongoing political headwinds.

In a market trends article published early last month, The Real Deal, the leading real estate trade publication in the country, reported that luxury properties have experienced a markup, citing an industry expert as saying, “The appetite for luxury property seems almost unabated.”

Activity was especially strong at the very top end of the market, with the median price now exceeding $6.5 million, representing a nearly 18% increase from last year. Almost 70% of those transactions were all-cash deals. Global and domestic demand for ultra-luxury trophy properties remains strong, highlighted by several significant Downtown transactions, including a record-setting $87 million penthouse property at 140 Jane Street that recently went under contract in the dead of summer.

So, let’s talk luxury! Technically, I consider the luxury real estate market to be anything over $4 million, but ultra luxury is a somewhat arbitrary designation – stratospheric! Think: 150 Charles Street’s penthouse unit that sold earlier in the year for a whopping $60 million, and 80 Clarkson, a duplex penthouse that went into contract for $87.5 million, to name a couple of recent uber-luxury deals.

When the Olshun’s NYC Luxury Market Report indicated that there had been just 10 deals over $10 million in the first quarter of 2025, I realized that my team had completed six of those 10 deals — a truly eye-opening realization about what we had accomplished so swiftly!

There’s no doubt momentum has been accelerating: There were more $30 million-plus home sales below 34th Street in the past five years than in the previous decade!

According to Olshun’s Report from early September, 16 contracts were signed in Manhattan at or above $4 million. Condos outsold co-ops by an 11-to-3 margin. These totals are in line with the 10-year average of 16.5 contracts for the week preceding Labor Day. It was the fourth-best August, with 92 contracts signed since 2006.

Another 15 contracts over $4 million closed just the following week, including the top sale at 111 West 57th Street for $22 million.

Typically, this market is an untouchable demographic — one that has means well beyond any person‘s grasp of luxury, comprised of wealthy entrepreneurs or CEOs of thriving (oftentimes, start-up) companies.

My advice to those with such substantial buying power is to purchase when nobody else is doing so, and to buy something that will hold value in a premium neighborhood. And I encourage sellers of luxury properties this season to be strategic about how you position the property, irrespective of the market climate. ‘Read the room’ in terms of how things are being absorbed and accepted, and how to best structure the sale by underpricing to drive bidding or put fat on the deal with room for movement.

Always keep in mind that strong properties will command strong prices if they are turnkey and rare in location and availability. As temperatures dip, and if interest rates come down as projected, product and negotiation abilities will be reduced. That’s especially true in these Make-A buildings, where there’s never a replicated product type.

Case in point: 800 Fifth Avenue, a luxury residential rental tower, sold to Miki Naftali for $810 million, according to the New York Post.

“That is record pricing for a building of its size — 33 stories,” an industry source said of 800 Fifth Avenue. “And it’s also perhaps the best Manhattan location for a super high-end condo development. Really, can you beat Fifth Avenue and East 61st Street?”

Naftali plans to demolish the building for a sexy new condo tower. “We’re thrilled that after fifty years as the best rental building in the city, 800 Fifth will be transformed in the next incarnation to the best new condominium,” he said in a statement.

In my estimation, the new units will come to market between $10,000 and $11,000 per square foot.

Meanwhile, The Real Deal recently reported that the luxury market was slowing down, pointing to a condo at 111 Murray Street that sold for $9.2 million, down from the original $9.5 million asking price in February. The mid-September Olshun’s Report showed that the top 10 deals were all under $10 million, a rare occurrence in Manhattan.

Still, The Real Deal reported that the homes on the Top Ten list for that week had a combined asking price of $70 million, for an average price of $6.4 million and a median of $5.4 million. That’s well within the luxury market price point.

So, while every week may not break records, the overall bigger picture suggests that global capital confidence continues to reinforce the idea of New York City as a reliable haven for wealth and a long-term store of value.

Issue 124 – “The Freeze Heard Across New York”

August 1, 2026

Even those of us who spend most of our days in the world of sales rather than rentals cannot ignore the conversation dominating New York real estate this summer: the city’s newly approved two-year rent freeze on nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments. The decision, fulfilling one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s signature campaign promises, has ignited passionate debate from tenants, landlords, developers, and economists alike.

As Time Magazine recently reported, “’Freeze the rent’ became the definitive rallying cry of Mamdani’s affordability-focused mayoral campaign for New York City, one of the most expensive cities in the world. Despite skepticism that he could actually pull it off, a board he controls made good on his pledge just six months into his term.”

In a 7-1 vote this June, the Rent Guidelines Board approved a rent freeze on one- and two-year leases on rent-stabilized apartments — which, according to the Time article, “make up about 27% of overall NYC housing stock.”

For tenants living in stabilized housing, the appeal is obvious. In a city where affordability persists as one of the defining challenges of our time, freezing rents offers immediate relief and greater certainty in an increasingly pricey environment.

Yet, as is so often the case in New York real estate, the story is more nuanced than the headlines suggest.

The New York Post presented the other side of the story, explaining that building owners are grappling with rising operating costs: insurance premiums, labor expenses, property taxes, and capital improvements have all increased substantially.

Critics argue that while the freeze protects tenants in the short term, rising expenses without corresponding rent increases may make it harder, particularly for smaller landlords, to maintain and improve aging buildings.

Rent freezes are not unprecedented. Previous freezes have provided short-term relief for tenants while renewing debates over maintenance, capital improvements, and investment in aging housing stock.

The broader issue is supply. Economists across the political spectrum generally agree that New York’s housing shortage cannot be solved through rent regulation alone. As Vox reported, demand continues to outpace inventory, making new housing production, zoning reform, and development incentives essential.

Although the freeze does not directly affect market-rate apartments, landlords with both stabilized and market-rate units may feel pressure to offset constrained revenue by increasing free-market rents where legally permissible. New York State’s 2024 Good Cause Eviction law, however, limits annual rent increases to the lesser of 10% or the local inflation index.

For buyers, particularly investors considering multifamily assets, the freeze introduces additional uncertainty around future income growth. Buildings with significant rent-stabilized components may trade at lower valuations because purchasers will have to underwrite higher operating costs against stagnant revenue.

For sellers, especially owners of mixed-use or rent-stabilized assets, the challenge becomes demonstrating long-term upside. We may see some owners delay sales, while others bring assets to market sooner out of concern that future regulation could become even more restrictive.

From a residential perspective, one unintended consequence may be increased demand for condominiums and co-ops. When rental policy becomes less predictable, many affluent New Yorkers begin to view ownership as a more stable, controllable alternative.

Foreign investors are unlikely to retreat from purchasing trophy condominiums or prime co-ops, which operate outside the stabilized system. In fact, increased regulation in the rental market could strengthen the appeal of luxury ownership as a store of wealth.

The greater consequence will be on institutional and international investors exploring multifamily acquisitions, where limits on revenue growth coupled with rising operating expenses may prompt some capital to pause, reprice risk, or seek opportunities elsewhere.

A major concern today is that the economics are more challenging than they were a decade ago. The Rent Guidelines Board’s own data shows that operating expenses continue to rise, with insurance costs increasing by more than 10% and overall operating costs rising by more than 5%. The effects will likely be felt most acutely in neighborhoods with large concentrations of rent-stabilized housing, while luxury condominium markets such as Tribeca, SoHo, and much of the West Village, where condominium and market-rate inventory dominate, will experience relatively little direct change.

New York remains one of the most desirable real estate markets in the world. The larger question is whether future housing policy can strike the right balance between protecting tenants and preserving the incentives necessary to maintain and improve the city’s housing stock. Recent reporting suggests that landlords and tenants alike are increasingly worried about the long-term sustainability of that balance.

Perhaps most interesting is what this moment reveals about New York itself. Housing has become far more than an economic issue—it has become a cultural and political one. The debate over rent stabilization reflects larger questions about who gets to stay in the city, who can afford to enter it, and what balance should exist between protecting existing residents and encouraging future investment.

As someone whose business focuses primarily on the sales market, I often remind clients that New York real estate rarely moves in straight lines. Policy shifts ripple through every corner of the market, shaping rental demand, buyer behavior, and investment strategy alike.

Yet what doesn’t change is New York’s capacity to reinvent itself. The conversation around housing will evolve, administrations will change, and policies will come and go. But the city’s enduring challenge — and opportunity — will always be finding ways to be both livable and aspirational.