In 1985, Bostonians didn’t understand the full-service concept. “But New Yorkers understood it and international buyers understood it,” Diane Maloney, the marketing agent of one of Boston’s first full service buildings told me last year. So, it was thanks to New York and foreign residents that the building (The Four Seasons Condomiums, 220 Boylston) sold out and a new style of living and quality of life started to grab hold in the Hub.
In 2011, I wrote that a steady increase in the amount of full service buildings in the city provoked Debra Taylor, the founder of LINK, the Boston MLS, to create a separate category called “Luxury Buildings” in the database. At the time Taylor noted that the downtown condo market had been a place where the housing stock was primarily made up of converted brownstones and that more recently a proliferation of ground-up luxury buildings had hit Boston streets. Since 2011, Boston concierge condo sales have continued their march onward and upward.
(How many concierge condos sell now in Boston and what do they cost? Hit “continue” and find out)
Today, sales in full-service Boston buildings are surging. In the first nine months of 2015, Boston sold 57% more condos touting “concierge” services than it did over the same time period in 2011. The significant increase in sales in buildings that offer luxury services reflects a variety of trends in Boston’s condo market, including more international and empty-nest buyers who understand and value full service, as well as an abundance of new developments being built by luxury developers to meet the needs and wants of this profitable niche.
Of course, a high level of service comes at a high price. Concierge listings currently listed as “For Sale” in MLS cost nearly twice as much by the square foot and have nearly three times the median list price of the Boston condo market as a whole. Additionally, according to my MLS breakdown, the monthly condo fee in Boston “for sale” concierge buildings averages over $800 a month compared to the market as a whole fee average of under $300 a month.
Will the uptick in Boston concierge condo sales continue? I definitely expect it to. This month, Sepia will begin closing more than 80 concierge condos. Soon after, 22 Liberty in the Seaport will start closing more than 100 concierge condos. And in fall 2016, Millennium Tower in Midtown will begin going to record with the first of its 442 concierge condominiums.
Boston Concierge condos cost nearly twice as much by the square foot.
Boston concierge condos have nearly three times the median list price.