Brooklyn multifamily building sales jump 50% | South Salem NY Real Estate

Residential property sales in Brooklyn jumped 50% in the first six months of the year from year earlier levels, hitting $1.2 billion, according to a report by TerraCRG, which also includes development sites and some industrial buildings. Slightly more than half of the total volume came in sales of multifamily residential properties. There, 233 buildings sold for a total of $635 million.

But it was the 91 sales of development properties that paced the overall gains in the period. They hit $188 million, nearly triple the year-earlier levels.

The action was heaviest in the neighborhoods of downtown Brooklyn/Park Slope and in Williamsburg/Greenpoint, as properties that had languished during the recession found new owners.

“We’ve seen both private and institutional equity pouring into Brooklyn,” said Ofer Cohen, founder and president at TerraCRG, who led the study. “Investors see Brooklyn as one of those markets that still have a lot more growth ahead of it.”

The upshot of the investment, Mr. Cohen said, is that the supply of “shovel-ready” projects has dwindled markedly. Down the road, that could have a big impact on prices.

“It’s going to take some time until inventory of new development sites comes to market,” he said.

In other parts of Brooklyn, the deals were smaller but there were more of them. In Bedford-Stuyvesant/Crown Heights and in greater Flatbush, the dollar volume of sales of multi-family houses is nonetheless on track to beat their last year’s totals. Mr. Cohen credited new investors looking to get into the market by buying up more affordable properties with driving sales volume in these neighborhoods.

The largest Brooklyn sale this year was the mixed-use property at 237-241 Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg. It sold for $66 million.