Tuesday, April 06, 2021
“Shitty year behind us”
New York makes luxury brokers happy again
Whether it’s a skyscraper with a skyline view or a townhouse on the Upper East Side: New York’s real estate market collapsed during the Corona crisis. Right in the middle: a German broker who now sees the future of his industry as rosy.
The corona crisis is not over in New York either. But at least the real estate market is picking up again, says Sebastian Steinau. “That’s the nice thing about New York – it’s incredibly dynamic. If prices have been down for a long time, the faster they go up again, and right now the market is coming back really incredibly quickly.” The 42-year-old from Neheim in the Sauerland has been a luxury broker in New York for around five years – and “currently in good spirits”.
“This is” YOLO meets FOMO “right now,” says Steinau. This translates as something like: You only live once, combined with the fear of missing out on something. “We’ve all had a shitty year behind us. The perspective has changed. Many people think now is a good time to maybe reward yourself a little, to enjoy buying a great apartment with your own outdoor area. And the city come back. The lights are green. “
Last spring, the metropolis on the east coast became the epicenter of the pandemic in the USA. So far, more than 800,000 people have been infected in the city of around eight million people, and more than 30,000 have died after being infected. The real estate market was largely turned on its head by the resulting crisis. “The market was incredibly difficult in 2018/2019 as well,” says Steinau. Among other things, this was due to the fact that international demand had declined for various political and economic reasons. “But last year he was completely awesome.” Nevertheless, he remained active and also sold a lot. “But it was reluctant.”
The “New York Times” wrote of about 7,500 apartment sales with a total value of almost 14 billion dollars in 2020, citing a survey by the industry service CityRealty. In 2019, there were nearly 12,000 sales valued at nearly $ 24 billion.
Video switch purchases
In the meantime, however, the infection rate in the metropolis has stabilized, the vaccination campaign is making good progress, and hope has returned to New York. As early as January of this year, the number of apartment sales in Manhattan and Brooklyn doubled compared to January 2020, analyzed the real estate agency Douglas Elliman.
“I think there have been no such times for a long time, and it’s really nice to see and follow that,” says Steinau. Big discounts are still possible, the price level is comparatively low, and because of travel restrictions it is still mainly local customers. Much is still going on via video switch. He has just sold an apartment to a couple from California that they had previously only zoomed in on. But international demand is also increasing again, a German prospect has already stopped by. “We are currently looking very positively into the future.”
Steinau specializes in residential real estate from five million dollars – especially in posh high-rise buildings or townhouses in chic areas such as the Upper East Side or the Upper West Side of Manhattan. But he also shows from around one million and has already sold something for 30 million. Steinau says that if you don’t have at least a million dollars to spare, investing in Manhattan makes no financial sense.
His customers usually come from all over the world and often have high demands: for example, panic rooms where they can withdraw with the family in an emergency. Or marble from Pakistan, stones from Japanese temples and a wall at least ten meters high for a very specific work of art. View of Central Park or the skyline, but especially a large private outdoor area in these times.
“This is not my life”
“I work in this world, but that’s not my life,” says Steinau. “I find it admirable that there is such a world that most people have built for themselves. Of course, in part I also have friends in this world, but it’s not mine. And it also has a lot of negative effects with it, many have to worry about their safety and that of their children. “
Steinau came into the real estate industry by chance. After school in Germany, during which he was a successful show jumper like his father, he studied economics in London and then worked in Malawi and Papua New Guinea, among other places. Finally, an acquaintance on the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean offered him to manage the sale of around 200 luxury properties on a private island with a private airport. “That was the first time that I sold real estate, in this case land. It was a tough school, but also a very good school. This American way of selling, putting all the cards on the table right away. You want it or don’t you want it? We Germans are more cautious and sniff each other first. “
Steinau didn’t sell anything for six months – but then everything went smoothly. After a second failed island project and a time at a resort, he met his current wife in a club in New York in 2013 and moved in with her around two years later. “After ten years in the Caribbean, my pirate days were over.” In New York he encounters a hotly contested real estate market with fierce competition. According to the city, there are more than 25,000 brokers in the metropolis. “Maybe there was a certain naivety about me, because of course it’s a terrific market, but also one of the toughest.”
Steinau hires in the newly emerging luxury tower district of Hudson Yards, then takes over a new skyscraper near the Museum of Modern Art and finally goes into business for himself. “You have to be clever, you have to have a certain positive basic aggressiveness and just work really hard – and the Americans really appreciate that.”
Steinau now lives with his wife, their son and a little daughter north of Central Park. “Open views” are important to him in his own home, he says. At work, however, the main thing for him is to make his customers happy. “It’s such a great feeling when you find a property for a client who then moves in and then calls you a year later and says,” Wow, that’s the most beautiful thing. “How great is that?”
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