Today’s higher interest rates are designed to put a damper on inflation. They’ve also put a damper on the sale of co-op and condo apartments in New York and other cities. But for some deep-pocketed buyers, there’s a workaround: avoid a mortgage and its high interest payments by buying apartments with cash.
A poster child for this growing trend, according to Crain’s, is the Wales, a former hotel at 1295 Madison Ave. that has been converted to a 20-unit luxury condominium. Though apartments start at $4.5 million, all of the 10 closed sales have been for cash. And the Wales is not alone. In the past half-year or so, as interest rates have spiked, the majority of buyers at new developments have been paying in cash, according to data from Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, a new-development-focused brokerage.