Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Weak Dollar Fuels City Real Estate

Hailing from Russia, South Korea, England, Ireland and other countries, brokers say foreign buyers purchase the properties for use as homes, investments, and as vacation destinations, often using the apartments just a small portion of the year. Even the buyers who previously wanted small pied-à-terres are now snapping up larger apartments with their more valuable foreign currency, brokers say.

Weak Dollar Fuels City Real Estate

And from the NY Times:

But brokers said that co-ops are also depressing their own prices because their boards require so much liquidity and assets that many buyers from overseas and people who work in finance are instead choosing condos. Hall Willkie, the president of Brown Harris Stevens, said that foreign buyers, especially Russians, have been snapping up sprawling multimillion-dollar condominiums. “In the past, a lot bought pied-à-terres,” he said. “We see a lot of foreign buyers are buying very large apartments.”

Co-ops Slip, but Condos Lead Rise in Manhattan Apartment Prices

They also choose condos because they would probably not be approved by co-op boards, which often demand full-time residence. Pamela Liebman, the president of the Corcoran Group, said buyers also prefer the conveniences of new buildings and the perks like concierges who can “stock my refrigerator, get my theater tickets and have my dog groomed.” The dazzle of living in a new building doesn’t hurt either, she said. “New, new, new — all of the foreign buyers love that.”


It appears that we are in a building frenzy so that rich foreign people can live here part time. They probably also contribute to the "9 million people by 2030" estimate. As long as they pay their taxes so that Bloomie can keep Manhattan looking good and parts of Queens looking like a third world country.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This comes as no surprise. Soon, foreigners will own the whole country, then in our pledge we'll say "One nation, under Kuwait, divisible for the right price..."

Anonymous said...

The New York Times is a little late on this news item as they usually are.....and far behind the times !

A friend of mine who once worked as a high end broker for Douglas Elliman, dealing in the top end of the Manhattan real estate market, told me well over A YEAR AGO.....that it was EURO MONEY (particulary Russian) that was buying up all those vastly expensive new Manhattan condos !

From Commissars to condo kings....... h-m-m-m-m !

In this new global economy..... supremely wealthy foreigners buy their "castles" in Manhattan while American companies, like Halliburton, move their world headquarters to places like the decadent country of Dubai !

Welcome to the land of "democracy".......or is our city fast becoming the land of the new economic aristocracy ? !!!!

Anonymous said...

Well, lets see, Americans are getting squeezed out of the housing market by foreigners who want a part time home and place to park their hot money.

This does not sound like something on the city or state level, but on the national level.

Where is Hillary? Iowa?!!

Thats right, oh, sorry, she has her own agenda.

Well maybe someone can ask her? Where is that 'affordable' church group?

Anonymous said...

America is destined to become more religious !

Most of the real estate will be owned by "churches" !

Where else can we live !

Reverend Sun Myung Moon was a genius !
He built an empire.... the Unification Church.....a.k.a the Unification Real Estate Company !

Too bad he went too jail or else he would have owned USA Inc. !

That task is now been passed on to the local, decentralized "churches" that are proliferating in our neighborhoods !

It's time for me to become a minister !

I wonder if those California (1960s) religious groups are still offering their Doctor of Divinity certificates ? !!!

Imagine me becoming a leader of the "Church of What's Happenin' Now Baby" with my house off the tax rolls.....boy doesn't that sound swell !!!

I'm gonna look that option over.... as soon as I get off line !

Anonymous said...

Foreign investments in the Real Estate market is nothing new. These investments have been accelerating for the past 25 years. It's seems the NY Times just got wind of it!

Anonymous said...

Is everybody on this forum a complete xenophob?? weren't American investors all over Eastern Europe the second the wall fell??? are you telling me they don't scoop up stocks/land/houses any time the dollar is strong?? You kids are very naive... sad.
It's a global economy, and trust me it does not go one way. It's amazing how much anti-foreigner propaganda you're eating up, I really thought New Yorkers were more open minded.

Queens Crapper said...

I am sure they did buy up a lot of property in Europe. Did they also tear down historic buildings and replace it with crap? I hadn't heard about that aspect of the revolution.