The Property Taxes on That $100 Million NYC Penthouse Are HOW MUCH?!?
“Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.”
-Honoré de Balzac
Reading The New York Times’ expose, “Hidden Wealth Flows to Elite New York Condo’s,” it’s hard not to think of Balzac’s famous quote.
Except that when it comes to condos in certain new(er) Manhattan trophy buildings, you might have to change “crime” singular, to “crimes,” plural.
Dirty Money?
According to The Times, at least 16 Time Warner Center condos have been purchased by wealthy foreigners 
“who have been the subject of government inquiries around the world . . The cases range from housing and environmental violations to financial fraud.”
What especially caught my eye, though, were two other features of recent transactions involving trophy Manhattan properties:
One. Property taxes.
Thanks to tax incentives, the property tax bill on the condo that just sold for $100 million at new luxury tower One57 was a measly $17,268 last year.
While that’s temporary, and the number will eventually rise close to $400k . . . that’s still a helluva subsidy to hand someone in the .01% (never mind 1%), with perhaps a checkered past to boot.
Minimal Vetting
Which leads to feature #2 of such upper, upper bracket deals: No one’s much concerned about where the Buyers’ money is coming from.
According to a real estate agent who’s handled deals at Time Warner Center, here’s what the vetting process consists of: “They have to have the money. Other than that, that’s it. That’s all we need.”
I happen to agree with the local Realtors that they have neither the expertise nor time to penetrate the purposefully opaque shell companies now often used to buy such properties.
Instead, that role should properly fall to the federal government, which has been lax (to say the least) policing shell companies, and requiring even a modicum of financial disclosure.
See also, “Manhattan’s $3 Billion Ghost Tower.”
