How to select a Manhattan condo

Posted by Wei Min Tan on September 9, 2022

Wei Min Tan spoke with Aidan Booth of The Growth Booth on how to select a Manhattan condo.

Condo versus Coop

Residential property in Manhattan is divided into Cooperatives, Condominiums and multifamily/mixed-use buildings.  Only a Coop/Condominium building allows you to buy an individual apartment.  A rental or mixed-use building means one has to buy the entire building.

Within the apartment category, a coop is not recommended because board approval is required to buy or sell, there are limitations to renting out, and a coop board can reject a transaction without providing reason.  The recommended property type for investors is a Condominium.  A Condominium is an apartment building where each apartment owner owns real estate title for the specific apartment.  This means the Condo owner can buy or sell without needing board approval, rent out whenever he wants, and make renovations as desired.

Read Wei Min’s article: Co-op versus Condo in Manhattan

Read about Wei Min’s style in Best Manhattan property agents and Role of a buyer’s broker.

The three criteria we evaluate when selecting a Manhattan condo are location, building and the apartment line.

Location

The first criterion we look at is location, whether the location has strong demand.  It is also important that the apartment is close to grocery stores, restaurants and subway lines, since 90 percent of people in Manhattan do not own a car.  Most of the time, Manhattanites prefer taking the subway because it’s more predictable compared to taking an Uber or car service.

Building

Secondly, we look at the building.  The building must have strong demand, and one way to easily evaluate this is to look at the number of units for sale and for rent.  A highly desirable building will have less available inventory while a building that has a lot of sale and rental listings means it has low demand.

Apartment Line

Lastly, we look at the apartment line.  Since buildings in Manhattan are all side by side, there’s usually a preferred exposure.  For example, facing north in one building looks to the street (the preferred exposure) while facing south looks at the back of the building behind you.

Read Wei Min’s article: Buying property in New York to rent out

What We Do

We focus on global investors buying Manhattan condos for portfolio diversification and long term return-on-investment.
1) Identify the right buy based on objectives
2) Manage the buy process
3) Rent out the property
4) Manage tenants
5) Market the property at the eventual sale

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