Earlier this week, former Howard Hughes CEO David Weinreb agreed to hire his West Chelsea penthouse for $177,500 a month, an eye-popping determine that adopted a $95,000-a-month lease at a Naftali Group constructing on the Higher East Aspect in December. Information on trophy leases is hard to pin down, however that is seemingly among the many costliest leases ever inked in New York Metropolis.
The 2 hefty leases got here as stock for Manhattan’s trophy leases — which appraiser Jonathan Miller defines as the highest 1 p.c of the market, with charges beginning at $25,000 a month — was down greater than 40 p.c year-over-year in January, as new leases climbed (albeit, at a extra modest tempo).
The momentum has been constructing since earlier than the pandemic and accelerated early last year, when leases asking $20,000 a month or extra picked up, in keeping with knowledge from UrbanDigs.
Although costs have been on the rise, brokers say the big-ticket numbers are exceeding their expectations.
“I personally have by no means seen costs the place they’re at,” Douglas Elliman’s John Giannone informed The Actual Deal in December. “When the excessive $100s per sq. foot for a rental begins to grow to be just like the norm, it’s utterly completely different from what we’re used to.”
Miller attributed the uptick in leases to the power of the ultra-luxury market, which logged a lot of notable offers via the top of 2025 and early 2026.
“It’s actually so dominant,” Miller mentioned of the ultraluxury market. When deep-pocketed consumers “can’t get the place they need, they lease.”
Serhant’s Peter Zaitzeff, who labored on the rental deal at Naftali’s the Benson with Giannone and the Lauran Muss Workforce, chalked the month-to-month value as much as a dearth of provide and “individuals prepared to pay what it takes to get a deal achieved.”
Market knowledge present extremely high-end leases are on the rise, however stay a restricted area as leases of this caliber are sometimes the results of specific circumstances within the lives of the proprietor or the tenant.
Zaitzeff’s shoppers, for instance, have been trying to hire whereas renovating their townhouse. Julia Haart, co-owner of the modeling company Elite World Group, opted to rent the sprawling 70 Sacristy Avenue penthouse she purchased along with her estranged husband, Silvio Scaglia, for $125,000 a month throughout their contentious divorce battle. (Haart, who stored the triplex within the divorce, offered it earlier this month for $57 million.)
Not so quick…
In a market starved for stock, the shiny new stuff is successful.
Legion Funding Group and Nahla Capital’s 1122 Madison Avenue claimed the highest two spots in Olshan Realty’s weekly report, with contracts out for condos asking $39 million and $36.5 million. They have been the priciest of the 31 Manhattan properties asking $4 million or extra that discovered consumers between Feb. 9 and Feb. 15.
The 26-unit Higher East Aspect constructing has already topped weekly contract reports twice since launching gross sales final month and can be muscling its approach into month-to-month new improvement experiences.
Corcoran Sunshine, which is dealing with gross sales, reported the undertaking logged 10 signed contracts in January — greater than another new improvement — at a median asking value north of $4,200 a foot. Marketproof gave the monthly crown to the Strathmore with 13 offers inked, however flagged a virtually $23 million pending contract at 1122 Madison as certainly one of January’s standouts.
The early momentum isn’t taking place in a vacuum. Manhattan’s new improvement pipeline has waned significantly, with few initiatives launching at the same time as demand stays excessive.
“When it comes to precise stock supply to the market, you’re seeing a lull,” Reuveni Improvement Advertising and marketing’s Daniel Pupke informed TRD final fall. “We’re in between two eras of cycles.”
Within the meantime, builders like Legion and Nahla are betting on boutique projects in blue-chip neighborhoods, as a substitute of the Billionaires’ Row supertalls that when drove the luxurious new improvement market in Manhattan.
NYC Deal of the Week
Two 78th-floor items at 432 Park Avenue traded for $52.5 million, marking the priciest deal to hit town’s rolls this week. The residences have been on the coronary heart of a dispute between the buildings’ builders, Harry Maclowe and CIM Group. Macklowe forfeited the items to CIM Group final 12 months after defaulting on loans from the corporate.
Learn extra
Apartment at Naftali’s 1045 Madison rents for $95K
David Weinreb’s West Chelsea penthouse rents for $177K a month
Jardim penthouse seen in “Owning Manhattan” sold for $15M
