Nearly $5 billion of multifamily real estate traded across New York City during the first half of 2026.
Dollar volume reached approximately $4.95 billion, up 21% from the first half of 2025. Transactions increased 6%, while the number of properties sold increased 11%. (Ariel Property Advisors)
At first glance, those numbers suggest a broad recovery.
But look borough by borough, and a very different picture emerges.
Investors are buying—but they aren’t buying everything, everywhere, at any price.
Manhattan is attracting large amounts of capital. Brooklyn remains highly active. Parts of Queens continue to attract investors looking for smaller free-market properties. The Bronx has experienced substantial repricing, particularly among rent-stabilized buildings.
And then there’s Staten Island—a much smaller and less liquid multifamily investment market that deserves to be understood on its own terms.
So where is the money actually going?
First, Understand What “Repricing” Means
When we say NYC multifamily is repricing, we don’t simply mean asking prices are changing.
We’re talking about the price investors are actually willing to pay based on a building’s income, financing costs, regulation and perceived risk.
Imagine two apartment buildings that each generate the same income.
One has free-market apartments with strong rental growth.
The other is heavily rent-stabilized, has rising expenses and limited ability to increase revenue.
An investor probably won’t value those buildings equally.
That’s exactly what we’re seeing across NYC.
The market isn’t assigning one price to multifamily anymore. It’s increasingly pricing each type of risk differently.
Manhattan: Big Capital Is Back
Manhattan produced one of the clearest signals in Q2.
Multifamily dollar volume more than quadrupled from the same quarter last year, driven in part by large transactions.
One example was the $241.25 million sale of a 49% interest in a five-building, 710-unit Upper West Side portfolio. An important part of that transaction was its existing Fannie Mae financing at just 2.6% through 2031.
That’s worth paying attention to.
In today’s financing environment, attractive existing debt can itself make a property more valuable.
Manhattan also continues to benefit from extremely strong free-market rental fundamentals. Ariel reported median rents of roughly $96 per square foot in early 2026, alongside a vacancy rate of only 2.44%. (Ariel Property Advisors)
What investors appear to be paying for: strong rents, scarce free-market inventory, scale and high-quality assets.
But Manhattan’s surge shouldn’t be mistaken for what’s happening everywhere else.
Brooklyn: Active, but Buyers Are Selective
Brooklyn remains one of NYC’s deepest investment markets.
Across all commercial asset types, Brooklyn recorded 497 investment-sale transactions during the first half of 2026—the most of any borough, according to Ariel’s latest research. (Ariel Property Advisors)
That tells us something important about Brooklyn:
There is still a broad base of investors willing to transact.
But activity doesn’t mean buyers have stopped caring about price.
Free-market multifamily remains attractive because investors can participate more directly in Brooklyn’s rental demand. Rent-stabilized buildings, on the other hand, have to be priced to reflect their more limited income growth and regulatory exposure.
For an investor, Brooklyn’s appeal isn’t simply that “Brooklyn is strong.”
The opportunity depends heavily on what you’re buying within Brooklyn.
A free-market building in a high-demand rental neighborhood and a heavily stabilized building a few blocks away can have completely different investment profiles.
The Bronx: Lower Prices Are Creating a Different Conversation
The Bronx may be one of the most interesting examples of repricing.
According to Ariel’s Q2 research, predominantly rent-stabilized Bronx properties were trading at approximately $69,000 per unit on average—about 59% below pre-HSTPA levels. Average pricing was approximately $76 per square foot. (Ariel Property Advisors)
A 59% decline immediately sounds like an opportunity.
But investors need to ask a second question:
Why did the price fall?
Rent-stabilized properties face restrictions on rent growth while insurance, maintenance, taxes and other operating costs can continue increasing.
So a property being dramatically cheaper than it was several years ago doesn’t automatically make it undervalued.
The lower price may be the market adjusting for lower expected returns and greater operating risk.
At the same time, that repricing can create opportunities for buyers with the right basis, financing and operating strategy.
The Bronx lesson: don’t confuse a discount with a bargain—but don’t ignore a major reset in pricing either.
Queens: Small Buildings Still Matter
Queens offers a different investment story.
In 2025, Queens multifamily dollar volume reached approximately $879 million, while transaction volume increased to 264 sales.
Buildings with fewer than 10 units represented 39% of multifamily transactions, with investors particularly targeting smaller, unregulated free-market properties in areas including Astoria, Long Island City, Flushing, Sunnyside and Jackson Heights. (Ariel Property Advisors)
Why does that matter?
Because Queens demonstrates that an investor doesn’t necessarily need an institutional-sized acquisition to participate in NYC multifamily.
Smaller free-market buildings can offer a very different combination of entry price, rental demand and regulatory exposure.
That doesn’t mean they’re inexpensive.
It means the investment thesis is different.
Staten Island: The Market Investors Often Leave Out
Staten Island deserves a different kind of analysis.
It is part of New York City’s investment market, but its multifamily sector is substantially smaller than Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx.
That matters because lower transaction volume means individual sales can have an outsized effect on averages.
It also means we should be careful about comparing Staten Island directly with a borough where hundreds of investment properties may trade.
Current NYC-wide research doesn’t provide the same depth of 2026 multifamily statistics for Staten Island that it provides for the other boroughs. Ariel’s research library currently lists dedicated 2026 reports for Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, while its most recent dedicated Staten Island report is considerably older. (Ariel Property Advisors)
So rather than pretend the data is equivalent, investors should recognize what Staten Island represents:
a smaller, more localized investment market where property-level underwriting matters even more than borough-wide averages.
For an investor evaluating Staten Island, the questions become very specific:
What are comparable buildings actually selling for?
What rents are achievable in that neighborhood?
How frequently do comparable assets trade?
Who is the likely buyer when it’s time to exit?
And does the property’s income justify the price without depending on Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens-style appreciation assumptions?
Sometimes less competition can create opportunity.
But lower liquidity can also mean fewer potential buyers when you eventually want to sell.
Both sides matter.
The Bigger Divide Isn’t Actually Borough vs. Borough
This may be the most important takeaway.
Looking at Manhattan versus Brooklyn versus the Bronx versus Queens versus Staten Island is useful.
But geography alone doesn’t explain today’s multifamily market.
Ariel’s Q2 research shows free-market properties commanding premium pricing, rent-stabilized assets trading at substantial discounts and affordable housing remaining comparatively resilient. (Ariel Property Advisors)
That means two properties in the same neighborhood can behave very differently.
The more useful questions are:
Is it free-market or rent-stabilized?
What is the current NOI?
How much can the income realistically grow?
What expenses are increasing?
What financing is available?
And what price am I paying for those risks?
That’s where the investment decision really begins.
So Where Are Investors Actually Buying?
The answer isn’t one borough.
Investors appear to be pursuing different opportunities for different reasons.
Manhattan is attracting substantial capital toward larger, high-quality and free-market assets.
Brooklyn continues to offer one of NYC’s deepest pools of transactions and buyers.
The Bronx is experiencing substantial repricing that could create opportunities—but also requires careful underwriting of stabilized assets.
Queens continues to offer a meaningful smaller-building market, particularly for free-market properties.
Staten Island remains a smaller, more localized market where individual property economics and liquidity deserve more weight than broad NYC averages.
That’s why asking “Which borough is best?” may be the wrong question.
A better one is:
“Where am I being adequately compensated for the risk I’m taking?”
Because NYC multifamily isn’t moving as one market anymore.
Capital is becoming more selective.
Prices are adjusting differently.
And the investors who understand why one building deserves a premium while another deserves a discount may be the ones best positioned to take advantage of the repricing.
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NYREDeals™
New York Real Estate Deals
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Information current as of August 2026. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, tax or financial advice.
References
Ariel Property Advisors — New York City All Asset Investment Sales Report, H1 2026, released July 30, 2026.
Ariel Property Advisors — Multifamily Quarter in Review: New York City, Q2 2026, released July 2026.
Ariel Property Advisors — Investment Sales in Queens Increase 16% to $3.43 Billion Across 558 Transactions, 2026.
Ariel Property Advisors Research Library — NYC and borough-specific investment sales research, accessed August 2026.