New York's Office Condominium Sales See Low Volume, High Price
A study of the New York office condo market has found that in 2017, sales are slow but prices are high.
Rudder Property Group's office condominium report for the first half of 2017 found that only $103M worth of office condos have been sold, 33% less than the average of the previous five years. It has been a precipitous decline from the second half of 2016, which set a record with $304M in sales.
The square footage numbers are even more stark: only 118K SF sold in 2017 so far, a 67% decline from the previous half year. Still, the relative lack of square footage sold contributed to the dollar average per sale setting a new record of $875 per SF, beating the second half of 2016's $847 and far ahead of the five-year average of $687.
The most significant office condo trade of the first half was Mission of Kenya's purchase of 20K SF at 866 United Nations Plaza for $900/SF. It was the largest transaction Rudder Property Group tracked in terms of square footage, and the second-most expensive.
At least one condo sale is all but guaranteed to add to the second half's figures, with TIAA Global Asset Management's TH Realty under contract to purchase space at Tower 270 in Tribeca. That transaction is estimated to be worth $582 per SF. According to RPG, there is nearly 700K SF of office condo space available in New York for an availability rate of 6.4%. The average asking price for that space is $1,022 per SF.
