Compass’ quest for dominance is no industry secret, but it pulled off a shocking reveal.
The nation’s largest brokerage by sales volume announced on Monday that it would merge with the industry’s No. 2 heavy hitter, Anywhere Real Estate.
The acquisition, set to close next year, values Anywhere at $1.6 billion and would put Compass CEO Robert Reffkin at the helm of the titanic brokerage with his firm holding on to 78 percent of the ownership. Together, the agent count of the two firms would total around 340,000, and the companies, once combined, estimated their enterprise value at a whopping $10 billion.
News of the deal sent shockwaves across the industry and raised questions about the duo’s control over the residential market, especially in markets where the firms are most active.
In New York City, Anywhere is better known through its subsidiaries, some of which are among the city’s top-producing brokerages. A deal to combine it with Compass would bring the two leading firms in Manhattan and Brooklyn under the same umbrella.
Together, Compass and Corcoran closed more than $9 billion in sell-side deals in Manhattan and $3.2 billion in Brooklyn in 2024, according to The Real Deal’s latest ranking of the city’s top brokerages.
Compass and Anywhere’s brands and franchises accounted for roughly $15 billion in on-market, sell-side transactions across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens last year — about 26 percent of the $57 billion in deals closed in the boroughs during the same time period.
Compass, three Anywhere brands — Corcoran, Sotheby’s International and Coldwell Banker Warburg — and Christie’s International Real Estate, which Compass acquired this year, were among the top 10 brokerages in Manhattan with a combined sales volume of roughly $11 billion.
Though the companies represent just a quarter of the total volume across the three boroughs, their presence in the luxury market is likely more outsized, as Compass, Corcoran and Sotheby’s International Real Estate are leaders in those markets.
Mamdani or not, NYC real estate is doing just fine
That’s the sentiment Compass agent Heather Domi expressed at a panel discussion on Thursday hosted by the New York Residential Agent Continuum, an organization she helped found in 2018, and the Master Brokers Forum in Miami.
“Never bet against New York City and New Yorkers,” Domi said, referencing a quote from Barbara Corcoran. “That has held true time and time and time again. We will be fine.”
Luxury brokers seized on the Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani to hypothesize that wealthy New Yorkers could ditch the city for greener, more tax- and business-friendly, pastures. Some South Florida-based agents have jumped on the bandwagon, with one top broker, Dina Goldentayer, taking out an ad in Times Square urging Manhattanites to move to Miami.
“I love New York and I want New York to always, always shine,” said Alicia Cervera Lamadrid of Florida-based Cervera Real Estate. “I am not excited about your mayoral election. I am terrified.”
“But New York’s success is Miami’s success,” she added.
Domi said she has seen contract activity in the Big Apple has dipped 22 percent year-over-year in the first three weeks of September, a drop-off she attributed, in part, to a hesitancy in the market ahead of the mayoral election in November.
But even if the numbers show signs of slowing down, Domi said that deals are still coming in and her business is running full steam ahead.
“We are getting impacted,” Domi said. “But anecdotally, we’ve got lower interest rates, and I’m super busy. People who have been dragging their feet and waiting are now pulling the trigger.”
Serhant expands to the Ocean State
Ryan Serhant is continuing his East Coast sprawl with an outpost in Rhode Island.
The celebrity broker is opening an office in Newport, Rhode Island, in October, HousingWire first reported on Friday. He’s launching his eponymous firm in the tony New England beach town with five founding agents who, together, notched roughly $550 million in sales over the past 12 months.
Serhant’s latest expansion marks the 13th state where the brokerage now has operations after the firm started spreading its reach beyond New York City two years ago. The brokerage initially set up shops along the East Coast, though it has since planted its flag in Arizona.
NYC Deal of the Week
The priciest deal to hit the city register this week was for a co-op at 998 Fifth Avenue, which sold for roughly $38 million. Evan Cheng, the co-founder of a cryptocurrency company, bought the four-bedroom apartment from cosmetics heir William Lauder in an off-market deal.
Lauder, the grandchild of the Estée Lauder founders, purchased Unit 6W for about $24 million in 2017. The co-op also features five bathrooms, an eat-in kitchen and views of Central Park.
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