How much of a premium should a penthouse command?

somewhere between 1% and 90%

Right, somewhere around there.

026451, if it's a real penthouse, then the apartment below is just another apartment. No setback terrace and other special stuff a real penthouse has. Views are dime-a-dozen in NY, so it's not just that.

There're also penthouse-like apartments that aren't called penthouses, up where the setbacks start. E.g., 778 Park, where there're several levels of "special" apartments.

Thank you. The PH I am looking at is exactly the same as the apartment below, except with slightly nicer/higher ceilings. Sounds like the letters PH alone don't command much if any premium.

One possible advantage(and possible premium) to PH - no noise from upstairs neighbor. One possible downside - roof leaks. If apartment is below is really the same - PH you are looking at might actually have a slightly negative value.

PH is BS unless it truly IS a penthouse & has a good-sized terrace. A penthouse is technically a little house sitting on a roof thus a nice big setback terrace; anything else is just a top floor aparment regardless of what they call it.

Well, Donald Trump has felt free in the past to call apartments on the top 2-3 floors of some of his buildings "Penthouses" - couldn't quite understand how he managed that but then again - he is "The Donald" and gets away with murder.(FWIW, I do think that penthouse usually does mean the apartment on the top floor of the building, with or without a terrace),

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/penthouse The Donald v. Merriam-Webster.

Some of the other dictionaries are going The Donald's way. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&defl=en&q=define:penthouse&ei=AGi1St_-H4PP8QbOub2TDw&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

Money defines our vocabulary, I guess.

Penthouses can suck--shoddy construction, roof problems, and outdoor space that abuts the water tower. Most PHs I've seen (with a very few exceptions) are nothing more than glorified trailers perched precariously on top of buildings that are otherwise very nicely built. They're an eyesore and not worth any premium, IMO.

Squid - you're talking about things built after the fact - just weird rooftop additions that were never part of the original building structure.

You obviously haven't seen any real penthouses- built as part of the original building - not next to the water towers, because those structures are on the building roof above.

In some buildings built pre-air conditioning, they put maids quarters up on the roof, which later got converted into "penthouses". In these cases, although it wasn't an "add on" later (i.e. "after the fact"), the penthouse units are still cobbled together from what were obvious never intended to be "luxury". If I remember correctly 40-50 East 10th is an example of this. OTOH, many building which you would think would be similar (i.e. lower Fifth Ave prewars) like 30 and 41 Fifth are almost "aluminum sided shacks" built on roofs which were never intended to have the cream of the crop placed there (and things like water tower and bulkhead placement belie this.

But those maids quarters were low-ceilinged, warrens of rooms - can reconfigure the rooms, not the ceiling heights. (think there are some on top of the Dakota).

When were the PH's built on 30 and 41 Fifth? when the buildings figured out they could sell existing previously unusable space for premium prices to buyers who would not mind the water towers and bulkheads around them? Very romantic looking (La Vie Boheme) but not what is conjured up in most minds by "penthouse"

Actually, I think they also did that on some upper Fifth Avenue buildings, where the park views would have been a major inducement.

In my best Thurston Howell III voice:

"I'll show you how to make a Manhattan..."