The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Amid a cooling housing market and growing concerns about a recession, the Trump administration is making it easier for first-time condo buyers to get a government-backed mortgage. The Federal Housing Administration is backing more loans for those first-time buyers, according to the Wall Street Journal. FHA loans require significantly lower credit standards than conventional loans and only require a 3.5 percent down payment. The FHA predicts it could insure as many as 60,000 additional condo […]

Apple has joined tech giants like Facebook and Amazon in the competition to lock up prime blocks of large Manhattan office space. The Cupertino, California-based tech company is looking around Manhattan for somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 square feet for a new office, sources told The Real Deal. One source said the tech firm could take as much as 750,000 square feet. Apple’s checked out the usual suspects of properties on the short list for […]

So much for “no desire to develop.” Weeks after announcing the sale of a 2.4-acre eastern Queens development site to… himself, MDG Real Estate’s David Marx has filed plans for what would be the borough’s tallest building outside of Long Island City. Plans prefiled with the Department of Buildings on Tuesday call for a 400-foot-tall structure consisting of “two residential towers, 37 stories each” with four floors of underground parking. The 717,000-square-foot complex with an […]

The We Company, whose imminent IPO stands to be one of the most hyped of the year, has laid bare its innerworkings. The WeWork parent company’s S-1 filing — filed Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — tells the story of a company experiencing massive growth while also sustaining massive losses. It’s also lent millions to members of its executive team at remarkably low interest rates. From the prospectus, The Real Deal compiled […]

Mortgage rates have fallen again, and homeowners are jumping aboard the refinancing train. For home loans of $484,000 or less, the 30-year fixed-rate average dropped to 3.93 percent, according to CNN, citing the Mortgage Bankers Association. On bigger mortgages and on 15-year loans, rates were even lower. The drop triggered a 37 percent increase from the week before on home refinancings; it was almost triple the amount compared to one year ago. But the shift […]

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up New York’s biggest real estate news. We update this page at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 4 p.m. ET. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com This page was last updated 4 p.m.     There’s a petition to rename the block by Trump Tower after Obama. The MoveOn.org petition has 100,000 signatures, and is requesting the mayor rename Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th streets, be […]

A group of nine tenants is suing Stellar Management, alleging that their apartments were wrongfully deregulated and that they are owed several years worth of excessive rent payments. Tenants of 50 West 97th Street on the Upper West Side filed a lawsuit against Stellar on Wednesday, claiming that the landlord failed to provide documentation to justify rent increases that ultimately deregulated their apartments. Stellar increased the rent, according to the lawsuit, through vacancy bonuses and […]

State Senator Julia Salazar’s Socialist chief of staff Boris Santos announced he will challenge Assemblymember Erik Dilan for his seat in Assembly District 54, a race that could have significant implications for the real estate industry. At a Democratic Socialists of America forum in a unitarian church in Brooklyn last week, Santos announced that he would seek the DSA endorsement to dethrone the incumbent in 2020. “Albany hasn’t changed much yet. It’s in dire need […]

Amid an iBuying craze, Keller Williams and Offerpad are teaming up to buy and sell more homes. Through a new partnership, Keller agents will steer sellers seeking all-cash offers to Offerpad, the companies announced Wednesday. Offerpad, which looks to flip homes within a week to 10 days, will then enlist Keller agents to market the properties. In an increasingly crowded field of iBuyers, the companies said the partnership ensures that consumers don’t have to choose […]

INVESTMENT SALES IN MANHATTAN AND BROOKLYN Manhattan investment sales stayed almost flat in June with $3.49 billion in deals recorded,35 percent above the 12-month average. The strong showing was largely thanks to one giant deal, which saw the Related Companies and Allianz buy up WarnerMedia’s 1.5 millionsquare-foot office condominium at 30 Hudson Yards for $2.2 billion. Brooklyn’s investment sales market bounced back somewhat in June with $492 million in deals recorded, 75 percent up from […]

Each week, The Real Deal and CityRealty look back at Manhattan’s priciest apartment sales.

The nonprofit Grand Street Guild is planning to bring a 274,000-square-foot affordable housing project to the Lower East Side. The mixed-use development at 161 Broome Street will stand 15 stories tall with 232 residential units, and it will include community and commercial space as well, according to plans filed Monday with the Department of Buildings. Handel Architects will design the building. Representatives for Grand Street Guild did not respond to requests for comment. The project […]

Some big names are showing interest in construction tech.  Another day, another story about people throwing money at proptech. Except, today the focus was more specifically on construction-related technology.  San Francisco-based Brick & Mortar Ventures launched a $100 million fund on Tuesday, the largest of its kind to focus exclusively on construction-technology startups, David Jeans reports. The fund will focus on Series A financing. Also on Tuesday, OpenSpace, a company that uses artificial intelligence to create […]

It has been a little over a year since the Mountain of Beverly hit the market for $1 billion, but despite a dramatic price cut earlier this year, there still hasn’t been a buyer. But that could soon change. The 157-acre plot of land will be auctioned off on Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal. It it attracts a buyer, the long and storied — and troubled — history of Los Angeles’ most expensive […]

As WeWork marches toward an IPO that could happen as soon as next month, the office-space company’s losses have continued to soar. For the first half of 2019, the company generated $1.54 billion in revenue and posted a net loss of $689.7 million, according to an IPO filing the company released Wednesday. The future success of the firm, which received a private-market valuation of $47 billion earlier this year, and was renamed the We Company, […]

Anthony Rinaldi has learned first-hand what President Donald Trump’s trade war with China can mean for business. One of his eponymous firm’s current projects, backed by a Chinese-government-owned company, has recently stalled. He’s unsure when, or if, it will get back off the ground. Delays are one among many headaches general contractors are grappling with as the trade war escalates, pushing up the cost of materials and casting uncertainty over planned and existing contracts. “A […]

A startup that maps construction sites raised $14 million on Tuesday, marking the latest infusion of capital into construction-technology companies by major players in the industry. OpenSpace, which creates 360-degree photo representations of job sites using artificial intelligence, raised $14 million in Series A funding, the company announced on Tuesday. Lux Capital led the round, joined by Goldcrest Capital, as well as new investors JLL Spark, Navitas Capital, Suffolk Construction, Tishman Speyer, WeWork and Zigg […]

Seated at a long dining table in a staged $11.8 million apartment on the 65th floor of 35 Hudson Yards, Mensur Cekic looks out the windows and surveys his territory. Cekic, 39, is the “director of residences” for the Related Companies’ massive $25 billion Hudson Yards development — a vague title that masks the scope of his role. He is responsible for the needs of every resident across Related’s condo and rental buildings in and […]

During an episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” earlier this spring, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West addressed the rapper’s intention to relocate the entire family to Chicago. Kardashian West thought her husband had been kidding. “Any conversation I have is serious,” he replied. If that’s true, then the wider real estate world should prepare itself. Though West’s plan for a community of affordable Star Wars-inspired houses in Los Angeles hit a snag last week, he […]