Condos, Condos, Everywhere

Some 8,278 condo units are in the Manhattan development pipeline, and around 2,000 of those are expected to hit the market within the next year, according to an analysis by Halstead Property Development Marketing, Crain’s reports. A soft market could get downright squishy.

The new development market has grown increasingly soft, especially for the priciest product, as projects planned after the height of the market in 2014 now come up for sale – joining many existing new buildings that have not moved all of their units. As a result, supply has grown. Halstead's first-quarter report showed around 6,000 apartments available in the borough, though some of those were being held off the market by developers until they can unload more units. How quickly these units will sell depends on – you guessed it – location, location, location, according to Halstead. 

"The supply-constrained neighborhoods that are most in demand are still seeing healthy absorption," said Robin Schneiderman, managing director at Halstead's new-development arm. "When you go into the second-tier neighborhoods that have a lot of product and the pricing is not meeting the market, that is where you are starting to see too much inventory." 

Of the 2,000 units that will likely hit the market within the next year, some of the larger projects will be in Harlem, the Upper West Side and at the Waldorf Astoria, which is being converted to condos. 

The remaining condos, which total 6,242 units, are in development projects that were not far enough along to file sale documents with the attorney general's office. Likely, developers of these projects have not obtained construction financing, meaning the buildings will come to market several years down the road. Many of these units, according to Halstead's numbers, are concentrated in Midtown South.