1st Home? Try, 2nd (or 4th)
According to the developer of 432 Park, there are already signed contracts for nearly $1 billion worth of apartments at the building; total sales are expected to surpass $3 billion. About half the buyers are foreigners; only about a quarter of the units will be occupied at any one time.
—“Sky High and Going Up Fast: Luxury Towers Take New York“; NYT (May 18, 2013)
The biggest surprise (at least to me) about 432 Park, the latest luxury “sliver” tower to spring up in Manhattan, isn’t that there are people who have $40 or $50 million to plunk down on luxe New York condos (the 84th floor penthouse actually just sold for $95 million).
It’s that these same Buyers apparently have enough dough to buy three or four such properties, in locales such as London, Hong Kong, and Miami in addition to New York.
Which is presumably where the owners are the 75% of the time they’re not residing at 432 Park (note the 25% occupancy rate).
Don’t hold your breath looking to score a stay at one of these places on Airbnb or other short-term rental sites: the owners clearly don’t need the money.
And even if they did . . . you couldn’t afford it.