A new wave of international buyers is reshaping Manhattan's luxury real estate market, even as domestic buyers hesitate amid interest rates, tariffs, and geopolitical uncertainty. According to Mukul “Micky” Lalchandani, founder and principal broker of Undivided, a boutique NYC residential real estate advisory firm specializing in luxury condos above $5 million, the profile of the international buyer has shifted significantly since the pandemic, with implications for developers and investors.
Pre-pandemic, Chinese buyers represented nearly 75% of all-cash luxury transactions in New York. That changed sharply after 2020. Developers who had structured entire pre-sale campaigns around Chinese buyers were suddenly building for an audience that had stopped showing up. In their place, high-net-worth buyers from India have become one of the most active international groups. According to the National Association of Realtors, Indian buyers purchased approximately 4,700 US homes worth $2.2 billion between April 2024 and March 2025, ranking among the top five foreign buyer groups nationally. India recently overtook China as the largest source of international students at US Ivy League institutions, and the wealth profile of those families mirrors what Lalchandani sees at the transaction level.
"They are focused on the long term," Lalchandani says. "The political noise that is giving domestic buyers pause does not register the same way for someone who operates in a complex environment at home. They are buying with a 10 to 15-year lens." This time horizon changes the entire evaluation framework. These buyers are not trying to time a rate cycle but are asking about a building's resale profile in a decade, future buyer demographics, and neighborhood supply dynamics. That is the same framework Lalchandani applies through the Undivided Value Index, a building-level scoring system that evaluates condominiums across eight weighted categories including financial health, absorption dynamics, and resale liquidity.
The shift in buyer preferences has already influenced what developers are building. The amenity packages that defined the previous cycle—large communal floors designed around shared spaces—are being replaced. New developments like 212 Fifth Avenue are being conceived around private club concepts: residents-only access, whiskey bars, Zoom-ready private conference rooms, and outdoor terraces attached to individual units rather than shared with the building. The home office is now a baseline requirement, not a floor plan bonus. Buyers are also asking for private gym installations within the unit itself, separate from whatever the building offers. The preference is for consolidation: fewer shared walls, fewer shared spaces, and more control over the environment.
These shifts have real consequences for buildings designed around older buyer assumptions. "Before, a buyer wanted a second bedroom for a child," Lalchandani notes. "Now they want a separate home office. The footprint requirements have changed, and buildings that were designed for the previous buyer profile are having to reckon with that."
Geographically, the current cycle is concentrating downtown, a departure from the Billionaires Row era on 57th Street that defined the last one. Record transactions at 150 Charles Street, 140 Jane Street, and 80 Clarkson reflect a structural preference shift: buyers want walkability, proximity to restaurants, and real neighborhood infrastructure. Midtown around Central Park draws tourists but lacks the everyday density that buyers who plan to actually live in the city are looking for. Downtown delivers that.
One thing worth flagging: markets driven partly by international capital can move in ways that are harder to predict than domestically-driven cycles. These buyers are long-term holders by design, but if their outlook shifts, resale liquidity at the upper end of this market can thin quickly. That is not a reason to avoid the market but a reason to be selective about which buildings to buy into, focusing on fundamentals like absorption rate, sponsor health, and building financials.
For domestic buyers trying to make sense of a volatile market, the international cohort offers a useful reference point. The question these buyers are asking is not whether to buy but whether the building will hold its value when it is time to leave, and whether the data supports the decision. That discipline, regardless of where a buyer comes from, is what separates a well-advised acquisition from an expensive mistake.
