Getting into Luxury Real Estate

He believed that wealth would eventually trickle down and stimulate the economy as those foreign billionaires spent money in New York, employed household staffs, and paid their property and income taxes.

But that equation has proven problematic. Since most of these foreign billionaires are not living and working full-time in New York City, they are not paying city income taxes, and because New York City has some extreme tax breaks for luxury real estate projects, they are not paying substantial taxes on their real estate holdings, either.

These property tax savings come from an affordable housing program known as 421-a. Essentially, 421-a promises huge, long-term tax breaks on luxury properties as long as the developers also build affordable and moderate-income apartments.

The legislation allowed luxury properties such as uber-luxury high-rise One57 to

So even though wealthy foreigners certainly love New York for their gorgeous penthouse views and strong returns on their real estate investments, New York should maybe think twice about loving them so much in return.