Press

As September 2025 gave way to October, several uber-luxury contracts caused the aggregate dollar amount of Manhattan residential deals to spike week over week. New development condos accounted for a whopping 14 of the 20 highest-priced contracts of the week.

Additionally, CityRealty data shows that prices in buildings by celebrity architects are well below previous highs. However, some of the week's highest-priced contracts were in buildings by Pritzker Prize laureates and other acclaimed architects.

The Jean Nouvel-designed 53 West 53 ranked among New York's top contracts for the first time since August 2025, and came back in a blaze of glory. Residence #65 was asking $46.68 million. While this is below the $51.2 million ask from when the building started marketing off floor plans, it was nevertheless the week's top contract by a strong margin.

The full-floor four-bedroom directly above the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is reached via direct elevator access. The building's diagrid reduces the need for interior columns, thus enhancing views in all directions, and interiors by Thierry Despont feature museum-quality finishes. A Great Room with triple exposures flows seamlessly into an eat-in kitchen designed by Mr. Despont for Molteni with an oversized island, statuary marble countertops, and Miele and Sub-Zero appliances. An ultra-private primary suite boasts triple exposures, a windowed dressing room, multiple closets, and a luxurious en suite bath.

It was trailed by Penthouse #37 at the Zaha Hadid-designed 520 West 28th Street, which was asking $35 million in the week's top Downtown contract and second-highest overall. Public records show that the seller paid $20.2 million for it in September 2020, and the listing notes that they embarked on a meticulous renovation in 2022. This yielded features like a new gas fireplace in the Great Room, a reconfigured full-floor primary suite, and a private roof terrace "rebuilt from the studs" to include a sauna, hot tub, cold plunge, outdoor kitchen, and indoor wet bar.

Coincidentally, the week's top Brooklyn contract was also topped with a private roof deck with hot tub. The penthouse at boutique condominium 524 Manhattan Avenue was asking nearly $6 million. A renovation nods to Williamsburg's industrial past with exposed beams and oversized windows; in addition to the rooftop hot tub, modern bells and whistles include a triple-height Great Room, equally well-appointed indoor and outdoor kitchens, and automatic blinds and smart home technology throughout.

Some of Manhattan's luxury buyers gravitate to the towers of Billionaires' Row, while others appreciate the city's most prestigious prewar cooperatives. That divide played out across the week's third-highest ask: Both the floor-through Tower Residence #37 at 111 West 57th Street, New York's second-highest residential building, and Residence #3W at the J.E.R. Carpenter-designed 1030

Fifth Avenue were asking $19 million.

The Fifth Avenue co-op was listed for $22 million in early 2012, but went off the market about a year and a half later. Years before relisting it for the asking price in September 2025, the sellers embarked on a renovation that was featured in Galerie magazine. Public records show that they paid $8.9 million for it in January 2010.

A short distance from 1030 Fifth Avenue, 48 East 81st Street had the week's top townhouse contract with a $17.95 million asking price. This represents a reduction from the $22 million the seller previously sought (h/t Robb Report), but was still good enough for the week's fourth-highest asking price overall. The house is being offered fully furnished with designer pieces, but no word on whether some of the more unusual decor will be included. It is not known how much the seller, real estate developer Shahab Karmely, paid for it.

Elsewhere on the Upper East Side, a total of $15.45 million was signed across two contracts at 255 East 77th Street. These included Residence #23A, a five-bedroom asking $10.15 million in the week's fifth-highest contract, and bring the Robert A.M. Stern Architects-designed tower to over 75% sold. Many of the two- and three-bedroom units are spoken for, and the smallest public availability is a four-bedroom, 2,403-square-foot apartment asking $5.7 million.

A short distance away, a total of $9.65 million across two contracts was signed at The 74, another new development condominium. Neither buyer has been identified, nor is it known whether it was two separate buyers or one buyer looking to create a duplex: The contracts were for Residence

#9A and Residence #10A, a pair of half-floor three-bedrooms that could conceivably be combined into one magnificent home.

Residence #23A is a one-of-a-kind, five-bedroom signature tower apartment. With amazing open views on three sides, south, east and west, this five-bedroom, five and a half-bath apartment is perfection. A gallery with great art walls leads to a wonderful 35-foot corner living room. A large, open kitchen is tucked away slightly to allow for a more formal dinner party but is open to all

the light and views of the great room and also has its own big window over the sink.