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New York overtakes London has hottest real estate market – Metro US

New York overtakes London has hottest real estate market

Nick Candy, the London property developer who helped conceive the most expensive apartment complex in Europe, is in the hunt for New York prime real estate after the U.K. raised taxes on luxury homes.

“New York is definitely catching up,” Candy, 39, said in an interview. “Could it overtake? Yes, if our government continues to make absolutely disgraceful decisions on the real estate market in this country.”

“It’s much more attractive to invest in New York than London,” he said.

London may lose its appeal for luxury developers because of tax increases and the prospect of further levies, said Candy, who helped create One Hyde Park with his brother. Prime Minister David Cameron targeted the wealthy to pare a record budget deficit by increasing a transaction tax to 7 percent from 5 percent on homes sold for more than $3.2 million.

Luxury properties in both the U.K. capital and New York are selling for record prices. A furnished home in One Hyde Park sold for 7,500 pounds a square foot last year.

A duplex penthouse under construction on Manhattan’s West 57th Street went under contract for as much as $9,000 a square foot, or more than $90 million, earlier this year. The building, One57, will be the borough’s tallest residential tower.

“There’s a lot of parallels with London,” said Jonathan Miller, president of New York-based appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. “The big thing over the last year and a half is the proliferation of trophy purchases.”