Sale at 205 East 63rd Street

The maintenance is high for the size of the apartment. Is it a land lease?

that's an interesting thought. How would I find out? (I can't seem to turn anything up in google)

Ask the seller's broker. They can't lie on something so fundamental that your lawyer would eventually turn up if you were to make an offer.
I haven't been able to find a listing of landleased buildings.

I don't know about 205 East 63rd, but 301 East 63rd (corner of 2nd) is a land leased building. I almost bought a place in there until I figured that out. Isn't 205 that 1950's white brick co-op? Units in there aren't so cheap, it's just an older building and many of the apartments are in "original" (i.e. need renovation) condition.

205 east 63rd does not own the land it sits on. It's land-lease is renegotiated every six years and runs until around 2046 with the option to renew. It cost is based on the land's value which is always rising. Maintenance goes up 5.7% each year due to the increasing cost of that rental agreement. The sellers broker should have explained that to you as it is crucial to the value of the apartment.

Overlook (or anyone else!) do you have a connection to this building? We're also thinking of buying here but growing increasingly spooked by everything we've read about this building -- and landleases in general. It would be helpful to know if you have any additional info or if you can say how you know what you know?

I bought into this building in the last year, and I will say that it is an excellent building with the best staff I've ever encountered. The building is in a great location, you couldn't be more central to everything in town. Personally, I was having difficulties finding apartments within my budget that didn't need a significant amount of work. Every place I looked at was at the high-end of my budget needed at least $50K of work and would've taken months to complete, and I didn't have the extra $$ to do that or to wait and still rent my apartment while I waited for the renovations to be approved/completed. Because this building is a land-lease, I was able to buy an apartment at a lower cost; in effect because of the land-lease situation I was able to get more than I could actually afford upon purchase - the apartment was turnkey with a renovated K&B, I haven't had to do any work on it.

I know the fees are higher and that it can take longer to sell, but I found that because I knew the area I wanted to be in (UES) and my budget was somewhat limited this was the perfect solution for me. I know that other people will disagree on the financials, but I'm still paying less than I would to rent 'all-in' not including any of the tax benefits of owning, and in order to break-even on the purchase it needs to be sold for $30K more than I bought it, which doesn't seem unreasonable in a few years to me. It was a risk I was willing to take to own an apartment, live in a great area, in an excellent building, with an apartment that was completely turnkey.

Thanks, bcnyc. It's hard to know how reliable overlook's data is without being sure of its source, so hearing from a tenant is helpful. We are interested for all the reasons you state: location, staff, and affordability. However, we are looking at a unit that would need considerable renovation, so turnkey is not an issue for us. We are far more concerned about resale ease and value (e.g. would we ever recover our renovation costs?) and what appear to us to be out-of-scale and unpredictable maintenance increases. We are necessarily trying to evaluate the risks for our situation, so it is helpful to hear how you reached your conclusions.

Any additional info on this building? Very interests, but concerned maintenance will go up rapidly due to land lease. Does anyone know if it resets every year or every 5 years? Is it tied to CPI? Thx