Land Lease Building

Use search function. Several threads here on land lease.

Also, if you're a serious buyer ask your lawyer before you fall in love w/ it.

{Manhattan real estate agent.}

In short: banks won't offer mortgages for units in a landlease building with less than 30 years left on lease. So, as time ticks down to 30 years, apt values dip and get more difficult to sell as potential buyers realize they can get stuck with the unit and not be able to sell it if problems arise with renegotiation of landlease. Landlord has building over a barrell and can quadruple the rent or worse. That translates to insane monthly charges (see 101 West 23rd St, 300? East 63rd St).

Here, with only 10 years left to d-day on the lease, if you buy now, it will likely be very difficult to maintain value and sell as 2019 ticks ever closer. Better to preserve value by having the coop board renegotiate lease now if possible to nip this thing in the bud. If lease were extended another 50 years+, that would relieve much of the risk.

Personally, there is no price at which I would risk such an enormous investment in a LL building with only 10 years left to the "term-minus-30-years" date.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Wvillage: In case you havent figured it out yet, "Land Lease" means the co-op or condo does NOT own the actual land that the building sits on. Rather, the building leases the land from the landowner.

As you can imagine, this makes for some crazy possible scenarios (like kyle described). I always picture a scene where a rich old guy, kinda like the Monopoly Man, jumps out of a Rolls Royce and starts waving his cane at the building while screaming "After 30 years, I'm finally rid of this dreadful tenement and all this riff raff...now get off MY land!" All while the co-op owners stare blankly from their windows.

07/24/2007 Bellmarc Listing sold. Last priced at $699,000.
08/03/2009 Listed in StreetEasy by Corcoran at $810,000.

? ? it's listed for $111,000 more than it's sales price in 2007

....the broker must have pressed the wrong sign " " $111k instead of "-" $111k

+ $111k instead of - $111k