Who's Buying NYC's New Castles in the Sky?

"Even as the prices of some of the city’s newest and hottest buildings like One57 stretch into the stratosphere, luxury apartments in Manhattan remain relatively cheap compared to other cosmopolitan cities around the world," writes Julie Creswell. 

Take Monaco, for instance, where an apartment in the Tour Odéon sold for $8,850 a square foot last year. At London's exclusive, One Hyde Park, average prices top $9,500 a square foot.

"Manhattan has always attracted a number of well-to-do globe-trotters who would happily spend a couple of million, maybe even $10 million, for a snazzy pied-à-terre on the Upper East Side," adds Creswell. "But as increased numbers of global billionaires have set their sights on Manhattan, there has been an absolute explosion in prices for top-of-the-market luxury apartments."

“We’re building the equivalent of bank safe deposit boxes in the sky that buyers can put all their valuables in and rarely visit,” said Jonathan J. Miller of the real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel.