While a handful of buzzy sales launches fueled the market, executives, brokers and data analysts warned all year of a looming inventory cliff as demand for quality projects continued to significantly exceed supply.
“The overall story continues to be inventory shrinking,” said Market-resistant co-founder Kael Goodman. “The total number of units is growing so slowly.”
The market still had its fair share of highs.
Perhaps the most high-profile launch of new developments began with little fanfare in early spring, when the sales team at Zeckendorf Development and Atlas Capital began quietly closing deals for apartments at the development.
“Everything I said this year had an asterisk with 80 Clarkson next to it,” Goodman said.
Although some agents have described the West Village project as “the big project that everyone is interested in,” details of the sales progress have remained a closely guarded secret until now.
The few details that have come to light have largely come from social media posts from real estate agents bragging about bringing buyers to the building, including last month when Bespoke posted on Instagram about signing a contract for Unit 24, asking for $31 million.
Instagram also gave us the first hint of deals for the Flatiron Building renovation, another highly anticipated project in Manhattan. Steve Gold of Corcoran claimed credit for representing the first buyer to sign a contract on his account for the building in October. About a month later, Unit 3North, with an asking price of $19.4 million, landed in the top two most expensive deals closed in Manhattan that week.
Another notable ongoing deal was at 140 Jane Street from Aurora Capital Associates, where a buyer was found for the penthouse for $88 million. If the unit closes at that price, it would break the record for the most expensive condo deal in Downtown Manhattan.
For other projects, 2025 was the year of the comeback.
Deals at 111 West 57th Street were slow before Sotheby’s International’s Nikki Field Team took over the sale last summer. Since then, apartments in the Billionaires’ Row supertall, developed by JDS Development and Property Markets Group, have routinely been among the two most expensive ongoing deals listed in weekly contract reports. The tower has achieved $400 million in sales this year and is 95 percent sold, according to a spokesperson.
Another Midtown project has also picked up steam after about a decade on the market. In October, 53 West 53rd Street, known as the MoMA Tower, picked up a buyer for Unit 65, most recently asking $47 million.
Across the East River, two rival new developments in Williamsburg are battling it out for neighborhood price records, with deals at Two Trees’ One Domino Square and Naftali Group’s Williamsburg Wharf continually outpacing each other for the most expensive condo deals per square foot. Both buildings are now just under 65 percent sold, according to data from Marketproof.
Beneath the highlights was an undercurrent of concerns about Manhattan’s dwindling inventory pipeline.
“The inventory situation will continue to worsen, but not get better,” said Kelly Mack of Corcoran Sunshine.
But the downsizing options aren’t a benefit to buildings struggling to offload units, Mack said. Instead, these buyers turn to the resale market or wait for a new project to sell.
“Several amazing new development properties that have recently come to market, or will come to market in the first half of the year, will benefit from current market dynamics,” Mack said. The lack of inventory “creates a sense of urgency to respond quickly to these properties.”
Not so fast…
Ryan Serhant’s ‘Owning Manhattan’ is back on Netflix.
The second season of the reality TV series premiered on Friday and eight episodes are available on the streaming service. The show features a number of new faces, including Peter Zaitzeff, who joined Serhant last January and took over sales at 200 Amsterdam for the brokerage.
The real dealgot a preview of the new season along with other reporters, editors and influencers on Wednesday evening during an event hosted by Serhant at Zero Bond. Members of the media, with cocktails and buckets of popcorn, lounged on couches in the private club to watch the first episode with the show’s cast.
“Not everyone is alive this season,” said Serhant, dressed in a pale pink suit, as he called back to a scene in the first season in which he fired his former agent, Jonathan Normolle.
In response to a question about his leadership style, Serhant went into an explanation of how the show came about, referencing a bidding war between Netflix and other streaming services.
“A lot of other people in the real estate industry who have TV shows and didn’t lose to us anymore,” Serhant said. “But that wasn’t your question.”
Cast member Jordan Hurt described the new season as a “deeper dive into everyone’s personal and professional stories.” Jessica Markowski added that she hoped to change her perception this time around after being portrayed as a villain last season for recording a podcast in which Normolle ridiculed some of their colleagues.
“It was something I wasn’t really proud of,” Markowski said. “Season two I focused primarily on business and really proved to Ryan and the company that I can do this.”
“If you come in and get a little beat up,
The brokerage hosted its official premiere party Friday at Terminal 5 on West 56th Street.
NYC deal of the week
The most expensive deal to hit the city records this week was a penthouse at 443 Greenwich Street, which sold for just under $40 million. Unit PHG was once owned by Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, who bought the apartment for $20 million in 2017 and sold it five years later for $29 million.
The 5,300-square-foot apartment has four bedrooms and a 2,650-square-foot wraparound terrace. Corcoran’s Noble Black had the entry.
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