The Empire State Building. The Freedom Tower. The Chrysler Building. The Statue of Liberty. The New York City skyline remains the most recognizable skyline in the world — and it’s no surprise: the estimated land value of the island of Manhattan is now worth over $1.4 trillion.
Have you ever visited NYC, looked at all of those high-rise buildings, and wondered whether you could ever afford to own one of them yourself?
Well, now you canーthanks to the magic of the blockchain. We’re proud to introduce the New York City Real Estate Coin (NYCREC).
But before we discuss NYCREC, let’s take a look at why New York City real estate is so desirable (and why it’s so hard to own).
Everyone wants a piece of New York City real estate
There are many reasons why people around the world wish they could own real estate in NYC. Some people want to live in one of the most culturally stimulating and dynamic cities in the world. Others crave the aesthetic of the old-style brownstones or the super-modern glass skyscrapers.
But for most people, New York City real estate means one thing: Return On Investment (ROI).
When it comes down to it, New York City has historically been one of the highest-yield real estate markets in the world.
The average price of an apartment building in 2007 was $1.4 million. Now, it’s $2.2 million. That’s an increase of 61%. That’s nothing unique. From 1974 to 2006, average real estate values across New York City increased by 250%.
Remember — these are all citywide averages. But consider Williamsburg, Brooklyn: in January of 2000, the average buyer spent a quarter of a million dollars buying an apartment. Ten years later in January 2017, the price of an apartment in Williamsburg was over one million dollars. That’s an increase of 400% in 17 years.
Unsurprisingly, it’s not just Americans taking advantage of this rewarding real estate market. The international community has a big stake in New York City real estate as well.
The world invests in New York City real estate
It’s very common for wealthy, international investors to use New York City real estate as a place to store value. Because NYC real estate is a hard asset with historically high returns, many believe it’s a smart move — especially if their homeland has a destabilized economy or an unscrupulous real estate market.
New York City’s Time Warner Center is a great example of this investment trend. Luxury apartment units there sell for over $5 million eachーand foreign occupancy is nearly 50 percent of the entire building. Yet half of New York City luxury condos spend over 10 months of the year vacant. The ultra-rich are literally using these empty apartments as bank vaults with high rates of return.
But this unflagging confidence in the ability of NYC real estate to continue producing history returns makes sense: New York City remains an international hub of finance, culture, and the arts. It’s the biggest regional economy in the United States and home to Wall Street. The United Nations is here. So is the Met, the Guggenheim and Lincoln Center. New York City is still the Rome of America, and it’s as appealing to Americans as it is to the international community.
That being said, the barrier to entry for NYC real estate is very high. it’s not an easy real estate market to break into.
The challenge of buying NYC real estate
As everyone knows, New York City real estate is very expensive. You could even say it’s prohibitively expensive for the average person, who will never be able to afford even the cheapest apartment unit in Manhattan.
The average cost per square foot of a Manhattan apartment is $1,773 (or $19,084 per square meter). That cost per square meter is less than most people in the world make per year.
But the real estate market is not just cost prohibitive: there’s also a barrier to entry in terms of real estate know-how. Someone unfamiliar with the NYC real estate market doesn’t really have any shot at securing a good deal — they’ll likely be overpaying an arm and a leg.
Here’s the truth that NYC real estate agents don’t want you to know: not all real estate is created equal. You have to know what property to buy in which neighborhood. You need to understand the many scenarios that may lead to lower-than-market-value prices.
A great NYC real estate investor needs to know how to identify good investments, but they also need to know how to recognize the trail of breadcrumbs that leads to a good investment in the first place. And then you need to know how to navigate all the paperwork.
Not only do you have to go through a lengthy approvals process to make sure you’re a qualified buyer, you also need a loan approval to verify your credit, assets, and income.
Then there’s the endless procession of paperwork and middlemen, from real estate agents themselves to building owners, banks, mortgage professionals, real estate lawyers, title companies — the list goes on.
Each of these people want their cut, and you need to know how to negotiate with them. If you’re not from New York City and aren’t familiar with the intricate bureaucracy and delicate courtships this process requires, it makes everything that much harder.
So how on earth can the average human being get their hands on a piece of New York City real estate? That’s where NYCREC comes in.
NYCREC: making real estate open to everyone
We’ve found a way to “tokenize” real estate with our cryptocurrency token, the New York City Real Estate Coin (NYCREC).
NYCREC is an ERC-20 token that gives the token holder (i.e., you) interest in real estate properties in New York City. Every token purchased is backed by a hard asset: an actual building or real estate property in NYC.
When the NYCREC STO is over, we will take all the money we raise from token holders and use it to purchase the smartest, best return-on-investment real estate we can find. That may be a commercial building, a residential apartment, a plot of land — whatever the best deals are at the time of purchase.
Because we will have these hard assets backing every single NYCREC Token, token holders will get to enjoy many of the advantages of actually owning real estate in New York City, including collecting profits generated by our portfolio of properties.
We call this “fractional ownership”, and here’s what it means for NYCREC Token holders:
- Cashflow Airdrops in ETH: On a regular basis, we’ll be converting a percentage of our cash flow into Ethereum (ETH) The ETH will then be sent to our token holders via airdrops. That way, NYCREC holders will get their share of the cash flow from the NYCREC portfolio of properties.
- An Asset-backed Token: Being tied to an asset separates NYCREC from other tokens because, rather than backing an unrealized concept or a business-in-the-making, every single NYCREC Token is tied to a percentage interest in a hard asset that generates revenue: a portfolio of hardworking properties in New York City.
We are decentralizing real estate ownership, allowing the international community to own a percent interest in one of the most exciting real estate markets in the world.
How is the NYCREC team going to buy all this real estate?
At this point, you may be wondering how we plan on achieving such a grand vision. Talking about raising and buying $200 million in NYC real estate is one thing — actually doing it is another thing entirely.
Fortunately, we have the credentials to back up our claims: NYCREC is headed by Young Kwon, who has invested or managed over $15 billion in real estate in major gateway cities worldwide. And he’s backed by a seasoned team of former and current Wall Street asset managers and investment professionals.
In other words, this isn’t our first rodeo — the NYCREC team has been buying, selling, and managing billions of dollars of NYC real estate for a very long time.
So, the more money we raise, the better the opportunities we can take advantage of. There is no situation in which we will raise more money than we can handle. In fact, even if we only raise our goal of $200 million, we can leverage that to purchase a building worth as much as $1 billion.
Our buying methodology is known as ‘opportunistic purchasing.’ In short, we look for undervalued or distressed properties facing an event that makes the owners eager to sell. We provide the seller in question with much-needed funds and they provide us with a building that is a bargain deal.
The idea behind opportunistic purchasing is very simple, but discovering the right building at the right time is extremely complicated and time-consuming. Not to mention that doing it at the scale we do is not exactly a walk in the park.
Why you should trust us
We aren’t some get-rich-quick STO team that has no real experience. We’re a decorated, seasoned team of real estate, finance, and crypto professionals who are all very good at what we do. In fact, this is what we know best.
As we mentioned, our leadership has managed or invested more than $15 billion in real estate transactions over a 21-year period. Over that period, year-over-year risk-adjusted returns have been as high as 25% annually.
Finally, the NYCREC core team has worked for, managed, and started companies in the investment world, taking on leadership roles at PIMCO, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank, among others.
In fact, several members of the NYCREC team have started, sold, or advised publicly traded companies in the past. Some members have also advised on several successful STOs, including XTRD and Bankex.
That’s why total transparency is our mantra. We want our token holders to feel secure, which is why we’ll be releasing independent audits.
That’s right — everything from how we’re spending the money we raise to what’s happening in our portfolio, things like rent revenue, occupancy rates, operating expenses, etc. — all of this information will be available to our token holders.
NYCREC is just the beginning…
We want to be so transparent with you that we’re going to tell you our long-term goals right now:
If we make it here, we can make it anywhere.
That means next year, we could launch the San Francisco Real Estate Coin or the Tokyo Real Estate Coin. London, Singapore, Miami, Hong Kong, Dubai…the possibilities are endless. But it all starts with NYCREC.
Want to be part of our presale? Then join the Real Estate Revolution.
