Trump-Branded Manhattan Condos Suffer Price Dips

What’s in a name? For condos that share a name with a certain former president, disappointing price points.

Condominiums in buildings bearing the Trump moniker began underperforming against the Manhattan condo market in 2016, the same year Donald Trump was elected, according to analyses reported by the New York Times.

Columbia University economist Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh found those condos went from selling at a 1 percent premium compared to similar units to selling for 4 percent less.

Between 2013 and 2023, the seven Manhattan condo buildings that still have the Trump name attached have seen price per square foot values drop by 23 percent, according to CityRealty. Methodology by analytics firm ATTOM recorded a 17 percent fall.

In four buildings where residents pushed for the branding to be removed, values rose by 9 percent from 2013 to 2023 — beating the Manhattan condo market by one percentage point, according to CityRealty.

Since 2013, the average price per square foot of condos at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue has fallen by 49 percent, according to CityRealty’s Ondel Hylton. The protests that regularly take up the sidewalk are a factor in the fall, but the building’s age and competition from nearby Billionaires’ Row trophy properties are added burdens.

“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,” Eric Trump told the Times in response to the analyses.

Elsewhere in New York, residents of the The Trump Tower at City Center, a condo complex in Westchester County, and Trump Plaza New Rochelle, a 40-story luxury tower, voted to dump their names and branding in favor of new management.

Last week, Trump was put on the hook for a $355 million judgment — which the attorney general projected could top $450 million after interest — in a civil fraud case in New York for unjustly inflating property values.

— Holden Walter-Warner