Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Shutterstock.

NEW YORK—Brooklyn showed positive growth in its condo market in January and February of this year, according to Halstead Development Marketing. But then the coronavirus hit and activity across New York City's boroughs declined.

New development gains in Brooklyn stalled in March due to the impact of Covid-19 leading to a 21% decline in sales from February.

Price point and unit size were significant factors for Brooklyn, with 90% of the new development contracts signed in Q1 under $2 million and one bedroom condos accounting for 44% of the quarter's sales, Halstead's report said.

However, the average asking price reduction of the units closed in Q1 2020 was 3.3% in Brooklyn, whereas it was 8.5% in Manhattan in the same quarter.

"The Brooklyn market showed resilience as pricing declined at a much slower rate than Manhattan," said Stephen Kliegerman, president of Halstead Development Marketing in prepared remarks.

"We expect Q2 to be the real barometer of the pandemic's impact on the market, and we will be monitoring engagement and response to the many innovative digital marketing tools that teams quickly added to the sales process."

Across the borough, there were 335 units absorbed in Q1 2020 vs. 330 units in Q1 2019. Median price and price-per-square-foot remained relatively flat compared with Q1 2019, $962,000 vs. $974,000 in Q1 2020, and $1,235 per-square-foot (Q1 2019) vs. $1,213 per-square-foot (Q1 2020).

According to the report:

  • Downtown Brooklyn was the top-performing Brooklyn neighborhood in Q1 2020, with 80 units in contract.
  • After Downtown Brooklyn, Emerging neighborhoods (72 units) and Central Brooklyn (57 units) accounted for the areas with the most absorption.
  • Top five performing buildings for signed contracts in all of Brooklyn Q1 2020 were 11 Hoyt, at 47 units; 10 Nevins (The Brooklyn Grove) at 22 units; 98 Front at 13 units; 184 Kent (Austin Nichols House) at 10 units; 185 18th Street (Arbor Eighteen) at 9 units and 561 Pacific, at 9 units.

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Erika Morphy

Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.

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