Half of Projected Condos for Sale in 2015 Were Already Spoken For
Jan. 23, 2015 — Early this month, The New York Times declared 2015 to be the Year of the Condo, and with good reason. Reports from various residential brokerages, including the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group cited by the Times, projected that at least 6,500 new luxury condo units in more than 100 buildings would be available for the taking this year. After a five-year drought, that figure seemed pretty impressive. But a report published last week by Halstead Property Development Marketing paints a different picture.
It looks like the number of new condos available for purchase this year is closer to about 3,500. Why?
Because after crunching the numbers, Halstead found that 3,000 of them have already been sold. "When you account for all of the apartments that are already in contract, you end up with almost half the projected number," Crain's quoted Stephen Kliegerman, an executive at Halstead who oversees the firm’s efforts at marketing and selling newly built condo units.
But this isn't necessarily bad news. In face, there are several positives to consider.
First, even if the number of condos up for grabs is just half of what was originally projected, 3,500 is still an improvement over last year's 2,500 units in 59 buildings.
Second, Kliegerman says that fewer condo units to sell will see prices skyrocket. "Halstead estimates that 52% of new condo listings hitting the market are priced at an average of $2,757 per square foot, nearly 25% over the average $2,215-per-square-foot sale price for newly developed condo units in 2014," Crain's reported. That means, said Kliegerman, that for the first time, half of the condos on the market in Manhattan will have a price tag of $5 million or more.
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