Analysis: Where foreign homebuyers come from

Foreign buyers have always been an important part of New York City’s luxury real estate market, but gauging where they are from can be difficult because many use shell companies domiciled in the U.S.

Some international buyers, however, are named in their transaction records, allowing for an examination of their countries of origin and in which neighborhoods they are investing most.

To figure out where all that international money is coming from — and where it’s going — The Real Deal examined city records of real estate transactions. The analysis was of residential sales to named buyers with addresses outside the U.S. over two years through Oct. 25, 2023. We excluded any purchases made through LLCs or other corporate entities, which greatly reduced the number of international deals in the sample.

Sifting through the remaining 191 transactions totaling nearly $310 million in volume, TRD found that the most common country of origin for foreign buyers was on our northern border. Canadians purchased the most residential properties in the sample, both by number (31) and volume ($43 million, or 15 percent of the total).

The second most common country was the United Kingdom. Brits accounted for over 10 percent of the total with nearly $33 million in volume across 16 deals.

Next was France, whence buyers spent just under $20 million on 14 homes, followed closely in volume by the Netherlands. Dutch buyers in the sample dropped over $18 million on city homes in the past two years. That was spread across just six deals, as Dutch buyers spent twice as much per home as the Canadians.

Rounding out the top five was mainland China, with over $16 million in volume across nine deals. Hong Kong was counted separately in this study, ranking No. 10 on its own with over $11 million.

Lenox Hill seems to be the favorite neighborhood of international buyers. It soaked up nearly 11 percent of the volume with over $33 million in sales across 13 deals.

In second place, but far behind, was SoHo, with nearly $23 million in volume, followed closely by the Upper East Side ($21.9 million) and the Upper West Side ($20.6 million).

The Plaza District, home to Billionaires’ Row, rounded out the top five neighborhoods with nearly $20 million in volume across eight purchases by foreign buyers. The low number undoubtedly stems from Billionaires’ Row buyers’ standard practice of using LLCs to mask ownership.

For the full dataset underlying the rankings as well as key contact information, check out TRD Data, The Real Deal’s new data subscription platform. 

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