Category : Featured

By Al Barbarino Multi-family apartment buildings in the city are often viewed as the primary market through which owner-occupiers aim to live rent free by dwelling in one unit and collecting rent on the rest. But it’s a “dream” that’s fading, as more and more multifamily properties, particularly brownstone-style homes that once housed three or four individual apartment units, are converted back to the one or two family homes “The dream used to be to live in one unit of a residential building and collect rent to live for free,” said James Nelson, a partner at Massey Knakal. “That type of investment is almost disappearing.” This is causing potential owner-occupiers to consider buying retail spaces with residential units above instead, a similar concept that some say offers what are often higher return

The semi-annual Fashion Week in NYC kicked off Sept. 6 and for brokers, the affair goes hand in hand with luxury residential real estate in Manhattan. One event included the brokers themselves as models. Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing star Ryan Serhant, SVP and managing director at Nest Seekers International, and Oren Alexander, SVP and co-founder of The Alexander Group at Prudential Douglas Elliman, both donned haute couture in the Nolcha Best of British Menswear Designers runway show. There’s also the former fashion stars that have made the jump to real estate, including Lawrence Rich, with Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Angelika Kallio, associate broker with Citi Habitats and former supermodel. “Music, fashion, real estate, all of it has to do with glamour,” said Rich. “When expensive real estate is doing well, it’s a sign that people are doing well. When people stop spending, they stop in all areas.”