The stock market may be down, but Manhattan’s ultra-luxury residential market is looking better than it has since the pandemic.
That’s the verdict according to market reports by New York City brokerages, compiled and reported by CNBC. Manhattan’s ultra-high-end luxury real estate market — with properties priced north of $20 million — had its best first quarter in six years, according to a cited Compass report. Those with very deep pockets tend to buy units in all-cash deals; 58% of sales in the quarter were made in cash, with units priced above $3 million seeing 90% of sales from buyers coming in with cash.
Those in-the-know on Manhattan’s luxury market, like Keller Williams agent Nicole Gary, say that the uptick is impossible to ignore. After a quiet 2024, demand among ultra-high-net-worth clients is up.
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“Things that have been sitting for a long time started to move,” Gary, who leads the the Nicole Gary team at Keller Williams NYC, told The Post.
Gary said limited high-end inventory and clients’ desire to move money from financial markets into real estate play heavily into the recent wave.
“People always feel that Manhattan real estate is a safe bet. It’s a hedge against inflation, and it’s a place where people feel safe when you know the stock market is volatile,” Gary said. “That’s what we’ve been seeing over the past few months, is a little bit of volatility with the tariffs and everything that’s going on politically. People are taking the opportunity to purchase these trophy units in Manhattan.”
The city’s overall market is showing early strength, as well. Closed Manhattan sales in the first quarter of 2025 exceeded last year’s quarter one sales by nearly 29%, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. There were 2,560 closed sales in the quarter, up from 1,988 the year prior. The total value of apartment sales reached $5.7 billion, 56% over the same quarter in 2024.
That said, that’s all been driven by the higher end of the market. Compass data shows that sales priced above $5 million jumped by 49% year-over-year.
It’s a buyers market, even along Billionaires’ Row, and the ultra-high-net-worth are taking the opportunity to upgrade.
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Increasingly strict back-to-office mandates on Wall Street and beyond are also bringing high earners back into the Manhattan fold. CNBC’s report also cited the “great wealth transfer,” the ongoing intergenerational transfer of trillions of dollars from the baby boomer generation to their fortunate offspring, as moving the real estate needle.
But the bullish numbers don’t reflect the whole picture. Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, told CNBC that the first quarter of 2024 was atypically slow. Instead, Miller is framing 2025 as “the year of getting back to normal,” according to his report.
What is clear, however, is that the luxury market is “carrying the team,” this year. CNBC reported that mid-market sales — sales between $1 million and $3 million, have lagged.
“I think buyers in that range worry more than the ultra-high-net-worth clients,” Gary told The Post. “They’re struggling with ‘Where’s the economy going? Is this a good time to invest?’”
Buyers interested in $10 million-plus or $20 million-plus condos typically own multiple homes, and they’re often paying in cash, Gary said, so they are less risk-averse than your average hopeful homeowner.
Compass’s 2024 year-end report on the ultra-luxury market predicted an increasingly competitive market through 2025, particularly as the reality of low ultra-luxe inventory meets with a rising trend of ultra-exclusive private listings.
