If Woody Heller Were Your Econ Teacher
Everybody wants to be a buyer, says Studley capital transactions group head Woody Heller. Which means rents are having a minimal impact on sales pricing. There's just so much capital streaming into NYC that he's agnostic about any other price factors.
We snapped Woody in his office reflecting... while reflecting. NYC's investment sales market is so hot it's "running out of things that can go right," says Woody. Cap rates are low, prices are high, interest rates are low, and debt is plentiful. And buyers' expectations of market value have changed dramatically. So while retail rents are rising fast and office more modestly, the biggest price determinant by far is capital flow, which is so strong that pricing is acting independently of rents.
Woody also says the high tally of dual purchasers (whether JVs or condominium-interest acquisitions) reflects the soaring value of retail space (take Joe Chetrit and David Bistricer's $1.1B acquisition of the Sony Building). In fact, Woody's team has sold the 14k SF retail condo at 465 Broadway (in the 40 Mercer residential condo building), which we snapped this morning, three times in three years. (Regifting has reached new levels.) And it's doubled from $41M three years ago to $80M this year. He also tells us leasehold deals will become rarer and condoization more common. It's just cleaner and simpler, he says.
