Sales of "Trophy" Condos End Year With a Resounding Boom

While 2024 will go down as an overall blah year in New York City real estate, there's one segment of the market that's ending the year not with a whimper but with a resounding bang: ultra-high end condos.

“In terms of the $10 million and above market, what I call the 'trophy market,' it’s the second-biggest year ever,” broker Donna Olshan, who compiled a report of the city’s biggest sales in 2024, tells Crain's. At least 278 contracts were signed at prices $10 million and above, she says. “It's looking like the same old, the rich get richer and everybody else doesn't do as well.”

More broadly, Olshan says this year saw more than $11 billion in contracts signed at $4 million and above — an 8.5% increase from last year. In total, 1,295 contracts in that tier were signed in 2024. The average asking price for condominiums within that category has also risen, to just over $3,000 a square foot, Olshan says. “That’s the highest number we’ve ever had.”

Behind this growth is an increasingly dominant preference for new buildings. “Here’s the story: That number ($3,000 per square foot) was completely fueled by new-development sales,” Olshan says. “People want new. They want freedom of ownership they get with condos, they want new infrastructure, they want amenities, and so that’s where they’re going.”

Her reference to "freedom of ownership" points out an essential difference between condos and co-ops. In the former the unit-owner owns real estate, while in the latter the shareholder owns shares in the cooperative corporation — and must win approval of the co-op board before being admitted to the building.

Partly as a result of this, co-ops continue on their slow decline in market share, while townhouse sales, Olshan says, have stayed flat. “One big problem is that the huge gap between condos and co-ops continues to grow,” she continues, referring to the $4 million-plus category. “Condos outsold co-ops 879 to 265.”

There isn’t a single co-op on Olshan’s top 10 list, and only two townhouses cleared the bar. 

Topping that list was the staggering $135 million paid for the top five floors of Aman New York's crown, at the corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue.