Manhattan’s Unique Style Lures Overseas Buyers

New York is one of the most desirable cities to visit on earth. From partying and posing, to shopping and star searching, there are unlimited factors of the city’s appeal. But does the property market have equal dazzle?

The answer is absolutely. Britons buying in the Big Apple look to Tribeca (the Triangle Below Canal Street), where artists discovered loft living in the Sixties, and SoHo (South of Houston Street), where the landscape has a European feel with cast-iron balconies and low-rise blocks built to house Italian immigrants arriving in the 19th century.

There is also Chelsea, a popular artistic and gay quarter, with loft buildings and brownstone family houses, and the legendary bohemian area of Greenwich Village. Prime Manhattan real estate close to Central Park attracts the wealthiest of buyers. And the prices are reputedly the lowest they will go.
"Prices are still down from a year ago, but they're improving. Unemployment has risen, but New York's labor market has been more resilient than the national average," says Walter Molony, of the National Association of Realtors, an umbrella body representing estate agents in America.

He forecasts the city's prices are likely to hold up - and possibly rise in the near future - because the number of new homes being built in NYC is a whopping 88.5 per cent below the long-term average.

Developers feel the same. In an interview for financial TV service Bloomberg, Barry Sternlicht - head of the Starwood firm, which specializes in building new apartments - says homes in his firm's new scheme at Battery Park are "selling like hot cakes".

Unlike many cities, where low cost wrecks are a thing of the past, New York has plenty of what Americans call 'fixer uppers' - old former industrial properties ripe for turning into homes. The Garment District on Manhattan's West Side still has plenty of examples for those wanting a renovation project.

New York estate agents also tip Washington Heights for price growth and, just across the Hudson in New Jersey, there are good-value homes to be found in the commuter town of Hoboken - popular with many British professionals who work in Manhattan.

One of the most dense, buzzing urban centers in the world, New York consists of five boroughs - The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. There are about 10 million residents across the city. The wider commuter area, stretching into New Jersey, has another 12 million.

And with prices as low as they are likely to go, this might be just the time to take a hearty bite of the Big Apple.

Celebs make NYC a Home away from Home

British-born actress Kim Cattrall has a Manhattan pad - appropriate enough, given her role as Samantha in Sex And The City. Close by are the homes of Coldplay’s Chris Martin and his wife Gwyneth Paltrow, and American heiress Nancy Shevell, girlfriend of Sir Paul McCartney. Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is reported to have no fewer than three New York homes - and he’s only 20.

But thousands of other Britons live in more modest New York properties - and there is a vast infrastructure to help them settle in. The most famous hang-outs for expatriates include Soho House, a private members’ club and hotel in the grungy Meatpacking district, and the Red Lion pub, a live music bar based in Bleecker Street. There is also Tea & Sympathy, a restaurant and shop in Greenwich Village. It serves a full English breakfast, roast beef at lunch time and cucumber sandwiches for tea. Devon fudge, Hob-Nobs and videos of vintage TV sitcoms are on sale in the shop, which was founded 20 years ago by Nicky Perry, from Eltham, London. Kate Moss and Rupert Everett are regulars, and Davina McCall calls it ‘my favorite place in New York’.

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The Manhattan Market for Foreign Investors

This week Jonathan Miller from Miller Samuel Inc. looked at Manhattan through the eyes of European buyers who were buying property in droves a few years ago.

He charted median sales price (black line) against median sales price adjusted for the difference between the Euro and the US Dollar (red line). The gray columns show the percentage difference between the Euro and the US Dollar at the end of each quarter.

The spread remains wide compared to a few years ago, when all those foreign investors were active in the market.

The weak dollar and the spread between various currencies remains a compelling economic force for those who can afford to buy in Manhattan. With the addition of prices being at the lowest point in decades, now is the time for foreign buyers to invest in Manhattan real estate.

Other news from the Real Estate market indicates that now is the time to invest. For example, mortgage rates are at their lowest point in years. In addition, the stimulus first home buyer tax credit has been extended to April 2010, giving first time buyers more incentive to take advantage of this market.

Foreign investors: Take advantage of the market today. Contact Alfred Real Estate.

Foreign Investors See Now as Prime Time to Buy

On October 4th HSBC sold its headquarters to Israeli firm Koor Industries and Property and Building for $330 million. The deal signals that foreign investors currently see Manhattan real estate as a bargain, experts say. Foreign buyers have been looking at the Manhattan real estate market for the past year, and the general feeling is that if the market has not hit a bottom yet, it is pretty close to it.

Other foreign firms are also expecting prices to soon see a rebound. Over the summer, Youngwoo & Associates and Korea-based Kumho Investment Bank reached a deal to buy 70 Pine St. and 72 Wall St. from AIG for what sources say was about $110 million. Youngwoo reportedly said it plans to turn 70 Pine into a residential condo, and are extremely optimistic about selling, expecting units to fetch $2,000 a square foot. Israel-based Optibase and an American partner agreed to buy half of 485 Lexington Ave. with a plan to buy the remainder later. The deal values the 500,000-square-foot tower at $504 million.

Experts say that buyers can now purchase office buildings for about $800 a square foot, without land costs—far less than it would cost to build them. In the first nine months of 2009 sales of properties priced at $10 million and over were down 80 percent from the year-earlier period. Although firms looking to buy are still struggling with the acute lack of financing, it appears that overall foreign buyers see now as the time to invest Manhattan real estate. The market may be at its bottom—and the rest of the world is not letting this opportunity pass it by.



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