Multifamily Monday: How to Seduce Luxury Buyers

When the only development that makes sense is condo, everyone is wooing buyers. (It's why you've seen more condos primping and moisturizing their building skin.) Here’s what panelists at Bisnow’s Residence of the Future event at The Roosevelt Hotel last week said those buyers want most.

Private Outdoor Space

For the uber-luxury set, interior architect Ed Siegal of Cooper Robertson (snapped with our moderator, Town Residential’s Lyon Porter) sees big terraces with landscaping, irrigation, and hot tubs; smart tech to control systems like lighting; and four-bedroom units being converted into two- or three-bedrooms to make room for storage or dressing rooms. These condo buyers also like Neo-Classical masonry buildings, which is a win for sustainability, he says.

Multi-Faceted Furniture

Gen Y wanted a sofa, Gen X a sofabed. Gen Z wants a couch that changes into a recliner and then into a sofabed, says Lazzoni CEO Efe Kababulut, whose family furniture company has been in the biz for 100 years. Or a coffee table that rises to dining height. Until recently, the 10 beds his company offered included two that were storage beds; now all 10 are.

What the Joneses Have

Developers also need to build to a high standard to satisfy in-the-know buyers and brokers, says Town Real Estate’s Shlomi Reuveni. Nine-foot ceilings won’t cut it anymore, he notes, because the buyer knows that the building next door has 10.5-footers. (Is the Jones family former Knicks draft Dontae' Jones?) And nowadays, almost all condo buyers ask whether a building has a two-pipe or four-pipe HVAC system.

Daring Architecture

Lend Lease’s Sara Rubenstein says developers want to differentiate their buildings, and that means world-renowned architects doing innovative designs like Herzog & de Meuron game of Jenga at 56 Leonard in Tribeca.