It pays to be on the water.
Or so it goes in Brooklyn, which in the third quarter hit a record price per square foot of $1,490 for closed sponsor sales, according to data by Brown Harris Stevens Development Marketing.
Driving the price climb are two dueling waterfront projects that launched sales within five months of each other last year, Naftali Group’s Williamsburg Wharf and Two Trees’ One Domino Square.
In the last 12 months, they have been the two top-selling developments in the city, according to Marketproof, combining for over 110 contracts. Both buildings have an average closed price per square foot of over $2,000, making for the kind of large-scale, ultra-luxury cocktail that can push prices up throughout the borough.
The developments in Brooklyn have been “coming into their age of luxury,” according to BHSDM’s Jason Thomas, citing One Domino Square and Williamsburg Wharf as projects with “larger-scale, higher-end finishes, [and] bigger amenities.”
In total, Brooklyn notched 247 new development contracts in the third quarter, roughly flat with the borough’s 10-year average. The contract dollar volume of $435 million was 18 percent above the 10-year average.
One Domino Square, where an in-house team led by Aaron Goed is running sales, topped the borough with 18 contracts last quarter.
Manhattan has not had the same ultra-desirable large projects launch that can juice contract numbers, even with buyer demand.
“When supply becomes constrained and people can’t get what they want … a lot of times they just go to the sidelines and they just say, ‘I’ll wait it out,’ Thomas said.
At the end of the third quarter, Manhattan counted just under 4,000 new development condos available to purchase, leaving it roughly 25 percent under its 10-year supply average, according to data from BHSDM.
Facing slim pickings, buyers signed just an estimated 298 new development contracts last quarter, down 15 percent from the 10-year average. The contract counts adjust for the 650,000-square-foot elephant in the borough, 80 Clarkson, which has yet to report a contract, and for 125 Greenwich, which batch-reported 20 contracts in the third quarter.
Manhattan’s top-selling building last quarter was Magnum Real Estate Group’s La Maison Collette at 815 Broadway in Greenwich Village, which netted 18 contracts since launching sales in July. A Serhant New Development team led by Andrew Appell, David Fernandez and Irina Balueva are leading sales.
Despite the borough’s constrained supply, the average closed price per square foot was relatively flat at $2,095.
There are no quick fixes on the horizon for Manhattan. A levelling off of land prices will help, according to BHSDM president Stephen Kliegerman. But, “we don’t see the supply situation turning around basically until the next decade,” he said.
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