After vanishing into the wind last year, Russian buyers are returning to New York City, agents tell Reuters. Earlier this month a Russian investment fund paid $37 million for a Central Park West penthouse and in June billionaire financier Andrei Vavilov paid $37.5 million for an apartment in the Time Warner Center.
"I've been contacted by one of the largest Russian real estate investment funds. They don't want to build, they want to invest,” said Irina Levieva, a broker at the Ostrov Realty Group.
Dolly Lenz, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman, told the news service, "(Russians) buy high-profile properties and yes, I am seeing a lot of them."
Not surprisingly, the weak dollar and the possibility of discounted prices in a fairly stable market are reportedly luring the Russians back to the city. Although New York City hasn’t seen the steep drops of many markets, the average price per square foot fell 16.5 percent in the third quarter compared to a year earlier, according to Miller Samuel appraisers.
