Trump brand costing condo owners across New York City
In the world of real estate, Donald Trump’s name has long been synonymous with luxury. At one of his buildings in Manhattan, a five-story waterfall slides down a wall of Breccia Perniche marble. White-gloved doormen, cascading chandeliers and panoramic views of the city’s skyline are the hallmarks of another.
It’s that image of luxury, which he turned into a brand, that the former president held up as a rebuttal to the recent lawsuit that he lost after a judge determined that Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his real estate holdings, ordering him to pay a penalty that will exceed $450 million.
“My client is worth hundreds and hundreds of millions,” said one of Trump’s lawyers, Alina Habba, during closing arguments at the trial, adding, “let alone the brand, which is worth billions.”
But up and down the spine of Manhattan, condominiums in highrise buildings emblazoned with Trump’s name have underperformed, according to sales data from two real estate tracking firms and an analysis of the data by Columbia University economist Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh.
The line in the sand is the year 2016, when Trump was elected president. In a one-year window, condos in buildings that had the Trump logo went from selling at a 1% premium compared with similar units to selling for 4% less, meaning that Trump condos became a “bargain” among the city’s luxury units, said Van Nieuwerburgh, a professor of real estate.
Even the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue saw the
average price per square foot of its condominiums tumble 49% since 2013, according to Ondel Hylton, senior director of content and research at CityRealty, a real estate listing website. The building’s age, growing competition from ultra-luxurious condos on nearby Billionaires’ Row and regular protests have all dampened interest, Hylton said.
By contrast, condominiums in four buildings where the Trump logo was removed at the behest of residents have seen their value shoot back up.
A review of the price per square foot of condominiums in the seven buildings in Manhattan that still carry the Trump name found that the value dropped 23% between 2013 and 2023, according to CityRealty. An analysis using a slightly different methodology by ATTOM, a property data analytics company, showed that the drop was 17%.
By contrast, the four buildings that removed the gold-hued Trump logo ended the decade from 2013 to 2023 up 9%, according to CityRealty.
Van Nieuwerburgh started with the same data, then combed through the sales figures, making sure that he was comparing
apples to apples. He found that the Trump-branded buildings collapsed in value by 25% compared with similar properties from their peak in 2013.
The data that was analyzed is exclusively for Manhattan. It is possible that Trump’s brand is faring better in parts of the country where the former president’s politics are more aligned with a majority of voters.
In an email, Eric Trump, the former president’s son and the de facto chief executive of the Trump Organization, questioned the analyses.
“Data can be manipulated to tell any story you want, but the fact remains that our buildings sell for the highest prices per square foot of any properties in the world. That is undeniable,” he wrote. “This year alone, Trump International Hotel & Tower New York closed on a $17 million unit, exceeding the prices at Time Warner, Essex House and the most prestigious properties in the city.”
A review of the top 100 sales in 2023 found that the bestselling condo in a Trump-branded building placed No. 47 on the list, while the second-bestselling unit placed No. 77, CityRealty found.