By: Hellen Zaboulani
January 2022 was a great month for Manhattan luxury real estate. In fact, it was Manhattan’s best January for luxury residential sales since at least 2006, as per data from Olshan Realty.
As reported by Crain’s NY, the data shows there were an impressive 102 deals signed just on properties priced $4 million and above, for the four weeks of January. By comparison, last January there were 84 such contracts signed, just 67 signed in January 2020, and 51 in January 2019 before the pandemic.
In just one week of January, there were twenty-nine contracts signed for $4 million and up homes in Manhattan, per the Olshan data report. For the week of Jan. 23-30, the average asking price for contracted homes was about $10.45 million. The average discount from the first ask to the final asking price was about 7 percent. Some 79.3 percent of the mentioned week’s sales were for condos, while 20.7 percent were for co-ops. “People have still made their money, people got big bonuses last year, and they’re very optimistic moving forward,” said Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty. She noted that usually January is a slow month for real estate in the city. The strong sales are being attributed to low interest rates, strong financial market performance and easing of the pandemic related travel restrictions. “They buy because they can,” Olshan added. “It’s that simple.”
The top sale for the month was a duplex penthouse apartment at 151 E. 58th St. sold for $36 million. The 5-bedroom, 9,000 square foot apartment at the 55-story Bloomberg Tower had previously been owned by Steve Cohen, the Mets owner, who had listed the home for eight years asking roughly $115 million, but had ultimately sold it in June for $30.5 million.
As per Crain’s the second priciest contract was a penthouse at 15 E. 69th St. listed for $32 million, discounted from its original asking price of $45 million listed for in 2019. The 4 bedroom, 7 bathroom, 6241 square food condo sold from the estate of Broadway producer Terry Allen Kramer, who passed away in 2019. The Upper East Side apartment boasted an additional 2,000 square feet of terrace space with city skyline views, and building amenities including a fitness center, concierge and doorman.
