The Big Apple bears fruit

New York's luxury property market is on the way up as the United States' economic recovery gathers pace. Research by property consultants IP Global shows that investments in New York still offers excellent potential, with the median sale price for Manhattan luxury apartments rising an impressive 13.3 per cent in the second quarter of this year.

And CBRE added gloss to the US luxury property market when it revealed in a recent research report that Asian investors are on track to spend more on US multifamily assets this year than at any other point in history.

The CBRE research showed that investment volumes by Asian buyers, mainly in cities such as New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, from January to August accounted for US$522 million of completed transactions, close to bettering last year's total of US$537 million.

One project that has caught the eye of Asian investors is 432 Park Avenue, located between 56th and 57th streets in New York. The 96-floor luxury tower is developed by CIM Group and Macklowe Properties. The 426-metre building is billed as the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere and has 104 residences.

According to Harry Macklowe, who founded Macklowe Properties more than five decades ago, 432 Park Avenue has already achieved nearly US$1 billion in sales and more than 50 per cent of the residences are already under contract.

In a show of confidence for the US economic recovery, two-thirds of the residences under contract have been signed by US-based buyers, mainly from California.