As Manhattan’s high-end inventory tightens and cash buyers dominate, Undivided founder Mukul “Micky” Lalchandani explains what it actually takes to compete above $4 million – and why the most valuable deals never appear online.
New York’s luxury housing market doesn’t operate as a single marketplace. It operates as two.
There’s the public market, the one buyers see on StreetEasy and Zillow, where properties accumulate days on market, price reductions, and bidding wars.
And then there’s the private market, where the most desirable apartments quietly trade through broker networks, developer relationships, and direct owner outreach, often before photography, staging, or even a formal listing agreement exists.
In the $4M+ segment, buyers who are only watching public listings are frequently competing over what’s left, not what’s available.
That difference, between access and visibility, is what is shaping the Spring 2026 Manhattan market.
The Inventory Problem Nobody Is Talking About
Mukul “Micky” Lalchandani, founder and managing broker of boutique NYC brokerage Undivided, has been watching this dynamic build for months. The shortage of quality inventory above $4 million isn’t simply cyclical, it’s behavioral.
In New York City, many homeowners follow a predictable ownership timeline. Families expand, work patterns shift, or lifestyle priorities change, and a large portion of discretionary sellers begin considering a move around the seven-year mark. But most of those owners do not initially list their property.
They first have quiet conversations: with a trusted broker, a building’s sales office, or a neighbor who recently sold.
As a result, a meaningful share of the highest-quality inventory never begins as a listing. It begins as a conversation. By the time a property appears online, multiple buyers may already have seen it privately.
This is why buyers relying exclusively on public portals often feel the market is hyper-competitive; they are entering the process at the final stage instead of the first.
The core issue is structural. Quality inventory above the $4 million threshold has been constrained for several years, and the pipeline of new supply isn’t moving fast enough to keep pace with demand. Lalchandani estimates that some of the most compelling properties at this price point never reach public portals like Zillow or StreetEasy at all – they move through broker networks and developer relationships before they’re ever formally listed.
Why Off-Market Access Has Become a Competitive Necessity
For buyers operating at this level, access to off-market inventory is no longer a nice-to-have. Lalchandani maintains active relationships with on-site sales teams at new developments across Manhattan and Brooklyn, which allows him to identify unlisted units before they come to market. He also tracks homeowner data systematically – the average NYC homeowner holds a property for approximately seven years, making purchase history a reliable indicator of who may be ready to sell.
“If you’re not on my radar when an opportunity surfaces, I won’t even be able to inform you,” he says. “You may lose the perfect home – one that never hits a public listing at all.”
For relocation buyers and international purchasers, this creates a structural disadvantage. They are often making decisions based on media visibility, well-known buildings and recognizable neighborhoods, while long-term residents and connected buyers are evaluating buildings based on liquidity, resale history, sponsor terms, and line-level performance within the same property.
That intelligence gap is particularly acute for buyers relocating from other cities or countries, who often arrive with strong preferences shaped by what they’ve seen in media rather than on-the-ground market knowledge. Lalchandani regularly steers clients away from high-profile neighborhoods that don’t deliver residential value – SoHo, for example, is largely commercial with limited everyday infrastructure – and toward areas that offer genuine upside.
Luxury Buyers Are Value Buyers
Perhaps the most persistent misconception about the $4 million-plus market is that buyers at this level are indifferent to value. In practice, the opposite tends to be true. Lalchandani’s clients – predominantly professionals in tech, finance, and medicine – approach a major real estate purchase the same way they’d approach any significant capital allocation: with close attention to the exit.
“You don’t buy based on personal taste,” he says. “You buy based on the marketability for a future buyer down the road.”
That philosophy has produced outcomes that speak for themselves. A San Francisco tech founder couple who arrived convinced they needed to be in SoHo ended up in a Gramercy penthouse – brand new construction, private rooftop, and the only unit on their floor – negotiated from $8 million to $7 million. Four years later, comparable units in the building are trading near $8.6 million.
Concessions beyond the purchase price also matter significantly at this level. A Manhattan parking space can cost between $400,000 and $1 million. Closing cost credits, renovation allowances, and sponsor incentives can add up to meaningful savings – but only for buyers working with advisors who know how to identify and negotiate them.
Most unsuccessful luxury purchases in New York are not caused by overpaying. They are caused by choosing the wrong asset.
Two apartments in the same building can perform very differently over time. A higher floor does not always sell better. A larger layout does not always attract future buyers. Even within new developments, sponsor inventory, investor concentration, monthly carrying costs, and line desirability materially affect resale demand.
Buyers navigating the market independently often optimize for finishes, views, or neighborhood reputation. Experienced buyers optimize for exit liquidity.
The role of an advisor at this level is less about locating an apartment and more about underwriting it – understanding how a future buyer will evaluate the property years later. In New York’s luxury market, purchase decisions are rarely judged at closing. They are judged at resale.
The Case for Moving Now
With mortgage rates expected to drift toward 5% later in 2026, Lalchandani anticipates a significant wave of buyers re-entering the market after sitting on the sidelines through 2025. That will intensify competition in a segment already defined by scarce supply.
His guidance for buyers considering a spring entry is straightforward: engage an advisor before you feel ready, not after. In a market where the best properties move through private networks before they’re ever publicly marketed, not being in that pipeline is a structural disadvantage – one that no amount of Zillow browsing can fix.
For buyers considering entering the market this year, timing matters less than positioning. The most competitive participants are not necessarily the ones offering the highest price – they are the ones already inside the information network before a property is publicly marketed.
In a city with nearly a million residential buildings and constant turnover beneath the surface, the advantage does not come from watching listings. It comes from understanding how the market actually moves before a listing ever appears.
Mukul “Micky” Lalchandani is the founder and managing broker of Undivided, a boutique NYC luxury residential brokerage specializing in modern condominiums and new construction above the $5M price point. Since 2022, Undivided has guided 130+ clients and secured over $5.7 million in buyer savings.