With only 1,249 new apartments expected in Manhattan all year — up from last year, but way down from 8,052 in 2007 — competition is intense.
Buyers are snatching up still-under-construction luxury condos at a rapid rate for the first time in years, according to The New York Times.
18 Gramercy Park is following the trend. It has just three of its 16 units left, and isn't scheduled to open until 2013.
The still-under-construction One57 high-rise, that was made famous by the 'dangling crane' incident during Hurricane Sandy, has sold 60 percent of its units. The penthouse in the building sold for $90 million, unseen to the buyer upon signing a contract.
200 E. 79th Street has contracts on 25 of the 39 units signed, and is still being erected.
In 2008, when the real estate market toppled, along with the economy, buying a not-yet-completed condo was financial suicide. It was feared that developers wouldn't be able to finish the project or make good on the promises in the contract.
But everything has changed, one developer tells the Times:
“We were inundated,” said Kenneth S. Horn, Alchemy’s president. “There is such a dearth of new properties that if you deliver a nice product with nice finishes in a good area, they’re going to sell.”
Now tour the inside of the still-under-construction One57 building >
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