It had been shaping up to be a strong year for prime real estate in New York City. The market here typically has an annual rhythm, where transactions only truly begin after private schools return from spring break, which means it’s often frenzied between April and mid-June. Yet over the past three months, there has been a surge of winter activity: data from top tier real estate firm Corcoran showed closings in that period rose 14 per cent year on year, the largest annual increase in the past three years. What’s more, 215 of them were for properties worth more than $5mn, 16 per cent above the five-year average for the first quarter. Knight Frank’s latest Wealth Report, published in early March, suggested a market revival in 2025 following a five-year period where prices fell 3.1 per cent; a true market expansion, perhaps, for the first time since 2019.
It’s perhaps not surprising, given that — after its pronounced pandemic malaise — the city seems to be on a high-spending mission to enjoy itself: face value for top-price tickets to see Denzel Washington’s middlingly reviewed turn as Othello opposite Jake Gyllenhaal’s Iago hit $921, helping it set a record for highest-grossing week for a non-musical in Broadway history after it opened in late March. Private members’ clubs are mushrooming, competing for deep-walleted patrons to pay annual dues and fees — take San Vicente, which opened in the West Village last month as an east coast outpost of the Hollywood favourite, and which charges up to $15,000 in initiation costs and $4,200 in annual fees. French department store Printemps opened a 55,000 sq ft shop at One Wall Street at much the same time, unperturbed at the supposed challenges in that sector.
“I’ve been in New York City for a long time now. Its energy is back: crowded restaurants, busy streets, plenty of traffic,” says Rebecca Patterson, former chief investment strategist at Bridgewater Associates who’s now senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.