The Super Rich Go Crazy For New York's Luxury Real Estate As $11 Billion Changes Hands

Despite a generally lackluster year in New York City real estate, the ultrarich sent superluxury sales soaring as high as the skyscrapers in which their new homes are housed. 

Proving the saying "there's one rule for the rich and another for everyone else," more than $11 billion went into contract for luxury homes priced over $4 million, Bloomberg reported – an 8.5% increase from last year. 

“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, said. Specifically, at least 278 contracts were signed at prices of $10 million and above. Olshan added: “It’s looking like the same old; the rich get richer and everybody else doesn’t do as well.”

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Record Breaking Prices

Big spending has lifted luxury Manhattan pricing to new heights. The average asking price for condominiums within that exclusive category is now just over $3,000 a square foot, a record, Olshan said.

The story behind the staggering sales is hardly new. It adheres to the trusted adage "build it and they will come." 

“Here’s the story,” Olshan explained. “That number was completely fueled by new-development sales. 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.”

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Co-op Sales Are Flagging

By contrast, co-op sales in the city were down and town house sales stagnated. “One big problem is that the huge gap between condos and co-ops continues to grow,” Olshan continued, referring to the $4 million-plus category. “Condos outsold co-ops 879 to 265.”

The Biggest Deals Of The Year

Most of Manhattan’s biggest sales were condos, many in some of the city’s most celebrated new developments. Three, in fact, were in the same building.

500 W. 18th St. East Penthouse 26 – $47 million: Designed by envelope-pushing starchitect Bjarke Ingels, the penthouse is located in the West Tower of the One High Line development. The full-floor 7,000 square-foot apartment has six bedrooms and seven-and-a-half baths.

4 E. 79th St – $56 million: This is not a new condo but a mammoth 15,000-square-foot 22-room town house steps from Central Park. Old-school New York glamor with a priceless location, the 130-year-old home is rare, 35 feet wide and entirely renovated.

730 Fifth Ave., 24A – $61.6 million: Located in the coveted condo/hotel Aman in Midtown Manhattan, the buyer, Terence Chan, a private equity executive based in Hong Kong, went into contract six years ago before construction. The 6,300-square-foot apartment contains four bedrooms and five bathrooms. 

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730 Fifth Ave., 23A – $64 million: What’s interesting about this 6,300-square-foot condo in the Aman is that the second sale was a flip. The first closed for $50.6 million – in March, likely a pre-construction price agreed years earlier – then sold again for $64 million.

138 W. 11th St.– $72.5 million: A new town house record, this 45-foot wide, 11,000 square foot home comprises two side-by-side homes combined into one. The Wall Street Journal reported that the seller was tied to Dexter Goei, former CEO of Altice USA, who purchased it for roughly $31 million in 2016.

520 Park Ave., Duplex Penthouse 63 – $79 million: One of the most famous luxury condo buildings in Manhattan is 520 Park Avenue, designed by famed architect Robert A.M. Stern. This 8,310-square-foot duplex enjoys an expansive curving central staircase and five bedrooms. The original asking price was $100 million.

220 Central Park South, 18A & 63 – $81.5 million: One sale for two units near the top of Central Park Tower. This unique arrangement included 15 rooms, seven bedrooms and 10 baths.

730 Fifth Ave., 26A – $135 million: The most expensive sale of the year (at the time of writing) was purchased in the Aman in an unfinished state by the building’s developer Vlad Doronin. No doubt he got a good deal for his investment.

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