Manhattan’s Long Investment Sales Drought — And Why a Surge May Be Coming
By Robert Knakal March 17, 2026 7:00 am
reprintsFor more than four decades, I have been tracking investment property sales in Manhattan south of 96th Street. Within this market, there are 27,649 investment properties, and, since 1984, we have meticulously tracked every sale.
Over that time, one statistic has proven remarkabl...
The strongest version of this narrative highlights a structural freeze in Manhattan’s investment property market, driven by regulatory changes that have distorted the economics of rent-stabilized housing. The analysis credibly traces the historical consistency of turnover rates and the unprecedented nature of the current drought, grounding its claims in four decades of data. It also acknowledges the counterintuitive stagnation despite distress, attributing it to the unique liabilities of rent-re...
