Many modern metropolises suffer from an excess of ‘pieds-à-terre’, where apartments are being owned by those who have primary residences elsewhere. This phenomenon is particularly prevalent in high-end luxury condos and apartments, where the owner is able to afford multiple of these properties either as investment, collateral, or simply second homes. Foreign investors and banks are the primary owners of these properties; often times in order to attain maximum flexibility of sale, the property is purposefully left empty. New York City is no exception to this. As prices are presumed to be ‘stable’ and can ‘only go up’ in Manhattan, many people are drawn to buy properties here. Night photography of these buildings are particularly telling, where only few lights are turned on at night.

Amongst these luxury properties, a few stands out as the most empty. From the emptiest property to the least empty property, followed by the number of pieds-à-terre apartments in the prentices:

1. Executive Plaza (74.4%)

2. CitySpire (60.5%)

3. Three Worldwide Plaza (54.2%)

4. The Vanderbilt (52.6%)

5. Zeckendorf Towers (51%)

6. The Parc Vendome (49.7%)

7. Madison Green (47.2%)

8. Continental Towers (47%)

9. The Corinthian (40%)

10. Kips Bay Towers (37.1%)

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