Top-floor penthouse at 432 Park lists for $169M, double the previous sale price
Photo by Sebastiandoe5 via Wikimedia Commons
An $88 million profit? That’s what the current owner of the 96th-floor penthouse at supertall tower 432 Park Avenue is hoping to achieve. As the New York Times first reported, billionaire Saudi real estate developer Fawaz Alhokair has listed his apartment at the 1,400-foot-tall condo for $169 million, double what he paid for it in 2016. If it fetches the asking price, it would become the second most expensive home ever sold in New York City and would set a record with its $20,500 per square foot price tag.
Though many signs point to the real estate market rebounding, it may seem an odd time to list such an ultra-expensive apartment. But the Manhattan luxury market has always been a force unto itself. Just this month, for example, an anonymous buyer shelled out $157,500,000 for two units at nearby Billionaires’ Row tower 220 Central Park South.
The Times spoke with Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty, who pointed to her company’s recent luxury market data. “For 21 straight weeks, there have been 30 or more contracts signed in the city at $4 million and above, a record-breaking run,” wrote the Times. “This is the strongest streak we’ve ever seen in the luxury market, of all time,” said Olshan, though she explained that this is the result of a combination of pent-up demand and discounted prices.
But regardless of the data, this $169 million ask is still incredibly ambitious for the 8,225-square-foot apartment. The $20,500 per square foot figure would set a new record, far exceeding the current $13,049 a square foot record, as appraiser Jonathan J. Miller noted to the Times. This record had been set back in early 2012 when a 6,744-square-foot unit at 15 Central Park West sold for roughly $88 million.
The asking price is also much higher than anything that’s ever sold in the building. Its most expensive sale occurred in 2017 when a buyer from China bought three penthouse units for a combined $91.1 million. (They had originally been listed for $120 million.) These units on the 92nd and 93rd floors amount to just under 12,000 square feet. According to listings website CityRealty, other current listings at 432 Park range from a $5.25 million two-bedroom on the 38th floor to a $79 million penthouse on the 82nd floor.
If the penthouse were to close for $169 million it would become the second-most-expensive sale ever in New York, following billionaire Ken Griffith’s $238 million purchase at 220 Central Park South in early 2019, which also holds the record for priciest home ever sold in the entire country.
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