Super luxury in the heights of New York only suitable for millionaires

Between the wealthy locals and those from abroad who indulge in the whim of buying a home in the city, super-luxury home sales are holding up well despite a slight decline since the middle of last year due to rising prices. interest rates, inflation and falling profits on Wall Street.

"In New York, sellers can weather economic downturns for quite some time and wait to avoid a price drop," says Rachel Glazer, Compass real estate agent.

Caution remains for now. No one seems to be in a hurry to close a transaction. And many of the owners choose to put their magnificent penthouses up for rent instead of getting rid of them.

The year 2022 ended with a total of 244 superprime home sales, with a price above 10 million dollars (9.2 million euros), and 43 ultraprime, all of which are above 25 million dollars. (23 million euros), according to the annual report of the luxury real estate agency Douglas Elliman and the consulting agency Knight Frank.

"Despite growing economic headwinds and rising uncertainty, the world's wealthy remain loyal to luxury homes," said Liam Bailey, the consultancy's global director of research.

The second city in the ranking was London, with a technical tie in the number of ultraprime operations, but with a lower total collection due to lower prices. The trends in both cities, however, were opposite.

If for the UK capital this meant a 26% increase in sales, for its US competitor it meant a 35% drop, which means that billionaires are reflecting on their investment strategies or waiting for sales.

The bronze on the list went to Los Angeles, followed by Hong Kong, Miami, Singapore, Palm Beach, Broward County (Florida), Geneva, Sydney and Paris. These 10 cities totaled $36.1 billion in super-luxury home purchases last year. Despite continuing on the podium of the ranking and leading the number of millionaires, with 340,782 residents with more than a million dollars of wealth, New York only saw prices increase by 3% compared to 8% in Los Angeles or 22 % of Miami.

The rich are more immune to high mortgage rates than other mortals, but they also like the deals. "They're super-rich, super-smart, and they want to make sure they get a good property, but also at a good price," says Richard Ziegelasch, a Corcoran Group broker.

Most potential buyers of unique Manhattan homes put their plans on hold in the first quarter of 2023, after the US Federal Reserve (Fed, for its acronym in English) raised interest rates by 50 basis points in December, a rise which started in March 2022 and reached 500 basis points last June.

The market started to strengthen in February and improved in March. But all the sales closed during that period were motivated by price reductions or because the interested party found just what he was looking for. The worst part has been taken by high-end homes above 10 million dollars. For this reason, the catalogs of the most select real estate agencies in the city are full of the most incredible properties in search of new owners.

This has allowed us to sneak into the interiors of the most exclusive homes for sale in the city. All of them above 25 million dollars. You can choose between a full-floor apartment in the thinnest building in the world, a three-story penthouse with a huge pool a few meters from the crowded Washington Square Park or a huge apartment in the building built by the millionaire Greek shipowner Aristotle Onassis on Fifth Avenue.

Some properties only within the reach of that 1% of the population that accumulates half of the world's wealth, who, until they decide to pay the money that their owners ask for, are visible to all.