July 22, 2015 | Commercial Observer | Bob Knakal
To describe the investment sales market at the end of the
first quarter of 2015 (1Q15), I used a musical analogy—the 1967 Sonny
and Cher song, “The Beat Goes On.” At the end of the first half of the
year (1H15), this time it is The Cars’ 1978 classic, “Good Times Roll.”
And in New York City’s investment sales market, the good times are
certainly rolling.
At the beginning of the year, our forecast for 2015
included a record achieved in dollar volume and a reduction in the
number of properties sold. Thus far, the market has been performing
almost exactly as expected. In 1H15, there was a two-quarter record of
$37.8 billion of investment sales transactions closed in the city. On an
annualized basis, we are on pace for $75.6 billion, 30 percent higher
than last year and 21 percent higher than the previous record of $62.2
billion achieved in 2007. This is great news for New York City as
transfer tax revenue will be much higher than anticipated. On top of
this, there were 2,586 properties sold, which puts the market on pace
for 5,172, a 7 percent drop from the 5,533 properties sold last year...
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