Firstly of 2025, New York Metropolis’s residential market regarded prefer it may spend the yr on its heels.
Dealmaking slowed as consumers and sellers pulled again, spooked by President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and the financial uncertainty they promised to unleash. However by the tip of the yr, a special image had come into focus, one the place town’s luxurious market emerged as a powerhouse.
“2025 was an amazing yr for New York,” mentioned Compass’ Carl Gambino, who heads the Gambino Group, which has outposts within the metropolis, the Hamptons, Los Angeles and Miami. “There was a sort of renewed vitality, the place New York simply felt unbelievably alive.”
Lengthy-listed properties lastly traded palms, as consumers scooped up lingering Billionaires’ Row stock and Higher East Aspect townhouses. Downtown Manhattan resale condos pushed pricing to unprecedented heights, as rumors swirled about nine-figure contracts on the space’s most fascinating new improvement challenge. In Brooklyn, competitors for houses in its prime neighborhoods was fierce.
“Even a home in Park Slope that was cute, however with no A/C, had a bidding battle,” mentioned Tali Berzak of Compass’ Berzak Metcalf Workforce. She added that although the market in Brooklyn was sturdy, getting gross sales throughout the end line was no stroll within the park. “It’s not that offers weren’t getting performed, they had been simply exhausting to get to shut.”
Because the yr continued, fears that town’s impending mayoral election would chill momentum started to rise, although offers for properties, particularly within the higher echelons of the market, continued to roll in. When indicators pointed to former Meeting member Zohran Mamdani’s victory, many within the business warned that the Democratic Socialist would drive town’s wealthiest gamers to greener pastures.
However — maybe to the chagrin of South Florida brokers — that flight of wealth hasn’t to this point materialized.
Mamdani’s election “actually has not been a profit and is actually one thing everyone seems to be speaking about,” mentioned Noble Black, who final yr moved his group, Noble Black & Companions, from Douglas Elliman to Corcoran. “But it surely hasn’t hobbled the market.”
As an alternative, extremely excessive internet price consumers are “speaking about it as they’re shopping for residences,” he mentioned. “Nobody is promoting seeking to get out.”
The larger situation dealing with brokers across the metropolis has been a extra basic one, of provide and demand. The brand new improvement choices have dried up, leaving brokers preventing for an edge to search out the precise houses for his or her purchasers.
“We want we had extra of a pipeline,” Black mentioned. “That’s the most important hurdle we’re seeing is that there’s not sufficient good stock.”
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Luxurious battles
Whereas the entry and center markets within the metropolis have remained hamstrung by excessive rates of interest for 4 years now, the luxurious market has swelled, marked by quite a few record-setting trades across the metropolis this yr.
“The market is usually extra polarizing than I’ve ever seen,” mentioned Compass’ Michael Koeneke, pointing to the ultra-luxury market the place there was “report pricing, report worth per sq. foot, and a really excessive degree of demand for sure product.”
The exercise has been centered on what has emerged as two of town’s hotspots: the west aspect of Downtown and the Higher East Aspect, which Koeneke, who based Trove Companions with Ian Slater, estimates makes up round three quarters of the group’s enterprise.
A $60 million sale at 150 Charles Avenue set a brand new Downtown report in March, solely to probably be outdone by offers at Aurora Capital Associates and William Gottlieb Actual Property’s 140 Jane Avenue, which discovered a purchaser for a penthouse asking $87.5 million, and Atlas Capital Group’s and Zeckendorf Improvement’s 80 Clarkson, the place a purchaser signed a contract for a unit asking $129 million in December.
Compass’ Nick Gavin mentioned these landmark offers give “a whole market confidence to proceed, as a result of there’s a lot capital in New York Metropolis; it’s nearly unleashing it.”
A part of what has stemmed the tide of capital is an absence of locations for rich consumers to park their cash. Manhattan’s new improvement market hit a 10-year low when it comes to obtainable stock in 2025, and initiatives to sink even decrease in 2026, in accordance with information from Corcoran Sunshine Advertising Group.
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For the few initiatives with items to promote, the dwindling pipeline was a boon for offers, notably for these luxurious developments positioned in a number of the metropolis’s most fascinating neighborhoods.
Douglas Elliman’s Elena Sarkissian mentioned she bought 5 penthouses final yr throughout her portfolio of initiatives in Tribeca, Gramercy and the Higher East Aspect, totaling greater than $83 million.
“There’s actually discretionary earnings available in the market,” mentioned Sarkissian, who pointed to waning stock as a catalyst for consumers. “They’re conscious that in the event that they don’t decide now or in the event that they haven’t already, they’ll have to attend till 2027 and into 2028, as a result of that’s the following wave.”
One of many brokers promoting Extell’s challenge at 50 West 66th, Corcoran’s Hilary Landis, mentioned that the dearth of recent developments on the Higher West Aspect has made the constructing stand out among the many crowd, or lack thereof.
Extra luxurious offers are additionally occurring off-market, in accordance with Compass’ Clayton Orrigo and Stephen Ferrara, who estimate their group, Hudson Advisory, did over 20 p.c of their offers off-market this previous yr.
“It’s not like, ‘Hey, I’m in search of this and simply present me what’s available on the market,’” Orrigo mentioned of what pursuits consumers. “It’s actually, what are you able to present me that I don’t find out about?”
Trying to the long run
Whereas New York Metropolis’s luxurious market continued its acceleration via the beginning of 2026, a number of brokers warned that mounting geopolitical headwinds, corresponding to battle in Iran, might derail exercise.
“If you happen to had requested me three weeks in the past, I’d have mentioned we’re going to have a powerful yr, however solely time will inform,” Berzak mentioned. “If gasoline costs keep excessive, that may have an effect on every little thing.”
Serhant’s Peter Zaitzeff mentioned that world unrest can really increase New York Metropolis’s enchantment as a “secure haven” for the ultrawealthy to retailer their cash.
“If something, it reinforces demand on the high finish,” he mentioned.
Mamdani’s relationship with actual property improvement and rich New Yorkers additionally stays up within the air, however Brown Harris Stevens’ Ari Harkov mentioned worries over the mayor stay overblown.
“Folks make housing selections primarily based upon jobs and youngsters and faculties and household and spouses and companions and girlfriends and all types of various issues,” he mentioned. “However folks don’t make housing selections primarily based on who’s sitting at Gracie Mansion.”
This yr has already clocked one other noteworthy deal on the metropolis’s newest sought-after constructing, Nahla Capital and Legion Funding Group’s 1122 Madison Avenue, the place a purchaser signed a contract to buy the penthouse for $90 million in January.
Brokers usually wish to say that New York Metropolis is resilient, and final yr appeared to show town’s mettle.
“There’s been ebbs and flows round charges and market actions and elections and Israel and Iran and all of the issues which might be happening on the earth,” Harkov mentioned. “However when you sort of put all of it right into a blender, it’s actually secure.”
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