Feb. 21, 2023 By Danielle Louie
The Queens real estate investment sales market recorded 659 transactions, totaling over $4.4 billion dollars in 2022, according to a report from Ariel Property Advisors.
“Investment activity in Queens was fueled by the first half of 2022 which was the best half-year ever, both in transaction and dollar volume,” said Alexander Taic, director of investment sales.
Within these transactions, multifamily real estate accounts for over half the transactions and records the best year in multifamily sales since 2018.
Two-thirds of the transactions took place in northwestern Queens neighborhoods, including Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside and Jackson Heights.
“New York City’s investor demand in 2022 showed exceptional resilience. The city entered a slower period of transactions with a lot of uncertainties in the last quarter of the year because of mortgage rate hikes,” said Shimon Shkury, Ariel Property Advisors’ president and founder.
According to Shkury, with mortgage rate hikes, the first quarter of 2023 will see a decrease in transaction volume, but with an abundance of capital and adjustments to housing policy, the real estate market may lead into a stronger latter half in 2023. For 2023, New York City will see the rent-stabilized asset class affected, according to Shkury.
“What we predict is some forced sales in that category, which will be an opportunity for the longer-term capital to come in and either buy buildings, recapitalize portfolios or buy lender notes,” Shkury said. “We’re encouraged that local politics and housing policies are improving and that the governor and mayor are collaborating and advocating for rezonings and more housing development.”
Redevelopment projects will occur in Willets Point and Astoria. Within 50 acres of Citi Field, Steven Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets, is looking to develop year-round entertainment with the possibility of a casino license.
And in Astoria, the Innovation QNS megaproject will target five blocks intersecting Steinway Street and 35th Avenue. The project will include a $2 billion private investment for a “vibrant, walkable, mixed-use creative district in a largely dormant corner of the community to serve as a center of business, cultural, educational, social and housing innovation,” according to Silverstein Properties.
Redevelopment in Astoria will add 2,700 units of mixed-income housing, 200,000 square feet for neighborhood-serving businesses, and 250,000 square feet for creative industries and small businesses.