Risks of Buying Off The Plan: NY Advice

The Take-It-on-Faith Condo

 Rising demand and a scarcity of new apartments are creating something of a rush on new luxury condominiums, with buyers increasingly signing contracts for spaces even before they are built.

 This article includes advice about buying off-the-plan in New York.

 http://nyti.ms/U4mQnI

One57 in New York

"One57, a 306-metre tower under construction in Midtown Manhattan, will soon hold the title of New York's tallest building with residences. But without fanfare from its ultraprivate future residents, it is cementing a new title: the global billionaires' club. The buyers of the nine full-floor apartments near the top that have sold so far — among them two duplexes under contract for more than $90 million each — are all billionaires, Gary Barnett, the president of the Extell Development Co., the building's developer, said this week. The other seven apartments ranged in price from $45 million to $50 million. The billionaires' club includes several Americans, at least two buyers from China, a Canadian, a Nigerian and a Briton, according to Barnett and brokers who have sold apartments in the building, at 157 West 57th Street."

Full story here

Byron Bay to New York City

A nice story in the New York Times on Sunday about the founder of PlatinumHD.tv, which is used by some real estate agents to promote property.   He has moved from Byron Bay to New York, and just rented a new apartment. The story of his search is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/realestate/roominess-takes-on-new-significance.html

Luxury Apartments

• New York apartment on Central Park South sold for $70 million.
• Soul Penthouse at Surfers Paradise, in final stages of completion, hoping to sell for $20M.
• Waterfront Newstead for $8,750,000
• Riparian, Brisbane City, for more than $3M

USA property market is turning around?

From my conversations with U.S. brokers (real estate agents), it appears that in some markets in the United States, there are now more buyers than sellers, with multiple offers on properties for sale.  This view is supported by a recent USA Today article:

Seller's market returns as homes for sale drop in some areas

http://usat.ly/JvJMoI

Update:  See also NY Times

Once Again, Floor Plans are Making Sales - in NYC

See NY Times article

"In recent months, though, several new developments around the city have once again sold apartments off floor plans. The practice is not widespread, and the examples tend to be in neighborhoods where there is very little new inventory. But at least one high-profile building that is under construction plans to sell off floor plans: the Extell Development Company’s 90-story hotel/condominium tower across from Carnegie Hall — One 57, at 157 West 57th Street."

Two Bedrooms Are Back in NY

As the real estate market in New York City shuffles toward recovery, two-bedroom apartments have been the last to rejoin the party.

Sales of studios and one-bedrooms rebounded first after the market crashed in late 2008, followed by three-bedrooms, but it wasn’t until mid-2010 that the two-bedroom market started its comeback. Now, brokers say that the demand for smaller apartments has ebbed and that two-bedroom apartments are all the rage, especially those priced at the lower end of the market.

Alan Nickman, an executive vice president of Bellmarc Realty, says that more buyers have recently come to him looking for apartments between $750,000 and $1.2 million. “That’s basically your starter two-bedrooms,” Mr. Nickman said, adding that the pool of potential buyers included “first-time buyers who are going straight into a two-bedroom,” bypassing smaller units.

See NYT

US News

"LOOKING for a deal in a down market? As winter sets in, the fruits of desperation — foreclosure sales, short sales, auction sales and deep discounts — are appearing in bountiful number, if anyone out there is hungry for a bargain."

NYTimes

TWO-BEDROOM apartments have long been the workhorse of the New York City real estate market, accounting year after year for the largest percentage of apartments sold.

When the recession hit, buyers fled the market and prices fell across the board. After things stabilized in late 2009, the market share for two-bedrooms had dropped from a typical 40 percent to as low as 25 percent, because more people had found that they could afford three-bedrooms, which took sales away from two-bedrooms.

Now, after a lull that has lasted for more than a year, two-bedrooms are back.

NYTimes

Real Estate Investors Look to the Future, and See Signs to Buy Apartment Towers

NYTimes

FOR some New Yorkers on the hunt for an apartment, the must-have item in the search is nothing as prosaic as a walk-in closet or a second bathroom. It is a number — a lucky number.

NYTimes

Goodbye, Glitzy Condo Pitches

"...To adjust to a market strikingly different from the high-flying one that reigned when these projects were conceived, developers have not only created new marketing campaigns but also substantially changed the buildings themselves. Focusing less on trendiness and more on value, they have redesigned lobbies, combined apartments to create more family-sized units, and swapped luxuries like private roof cabanas for shared amenities like common roof decks. The changes all seek to appeal to today’s much more skeptical buyer...."

See NY Times article

Slumburbia in the USA

"After several days in foreclosure alley, this broad swath of the Central Valley that has been rated by some economists as the most stressed region during the Great Recession, I can’t see such apocalyptic forecasts coming true. Yes, huge developments are empty, with rising crime at the edges, and thousands of homes owned by banks that can’t unload them even at fire-sale prices. But through it all, the country churns and expands, unlike most other Western democracies. That great American natural resource — tomorrow — will have to save the suburban slums."

NYTimes

Apartment House

Bovis Lend Lease, an Australian company, is building a wonderful apartment building in New York City - 535 West End Avenue.

Some floors are full floor apartments, and on other floors there are two apartments per floor. One of the smaller apartments is 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and is 408 square metres in size.

Why don't we get this quality apartment house in Brisbane?