Massive apartment on Manhattan's Billionaires' Row sells for US$28m

[NEW YORK] A full-floor apartment near the top of Manhattan's One57 just sold for US$28 million.

The condo on the 88th floor, with postcard views of Central Park, sold on May 29, according to city records. The seller paid US$47.4 million for the unit when it was completed in 2014.

The city records indicate the buyer and seller are related. That suggests the resale, a 41 per cent discount to the original price, is not necessarily indicative of the unit's true market value.

The seller was not a third party, according to person familiar with the matter.

The recorded sales price would mark the biggest discount to date at the 1,004-foot (306-metre) skyscraper, once the icon of Manhattan's ultra-luxury condo boom, according to Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.

Extell Development broke ground on One57 in 2009 while many other projects were sidelined by the Great Recession. With little competition, it quickly drew global investors who payed large sums for homes they rarely lived in. A penthouse at the tower sold in 2014 for US$100.5 million, a city price record that stood until last year.

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Now, buyers at One57 have increasingly been trading their homes at a loss as new projects proliferate in Manhattan and create a glut of high-end choices amid slackening demand. In 2017, resales at the tower averaged 25 per cent less than their 2014 purchase prices, according to Miller Samuel Inc data.

Continued weakness in the ultra-luxury market has been amplified by the global pandemic as well as the higher mansion and transfer taxes imposed by the state last year, Mr Miller said.

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