A stunning art-themed soiree this past Friday shows you don’t need to travel to Miami to experience the Art Basel vibe. The team hosted an exclusive viewing of large scale works by emerging artist Julia Ryan at an 1,800 SF loft space on the 6th floor of 45Lispenard Street in Tribeca. 

…Stribling broker Jason Lanyard said additional interest-rate hikes — the Fed raised rates by a quarter percentage point in December and is expect to further nudge rates up this year — may also push more Wall Street executives into the NYC real estate market, since they are typically among the highest leveraged buyers. 

“The developer couldn’t give apartments away. It was like selling someone a condo in a crack den,” said Mr. Lanyard. Nowadays, there have been 10 sales in the building this year alone, including a four-bedroom unit that sold for just under $4 million this fall—a major increase from the $2.35 million the sellers paid 13 years ago.

Lanyard and Grandelli have made several trips to Mumbai and New Delhi in order to meet with more potential clients and industry players, including real estate agents, wealth managers and attorneys. Today, Indians make up a third of their clientele, according to Lanyard.

“Indians are very hyper aware of who is and who isn’t a billionaire because the wealth disparity in the country is so strong,” Mr. Lanyard said. He has a client, for instance, who runs a publicly traded bank. “If he were to buy at a building like 15 Central Park West, like the Russians do, his stock would tank,” he said.

Lanyard and his partner Nicole Grandelli, who claim to have sold more than 30 New York apartments to Indian buyers over the past eight years, said they have noticed growing interest from the subcontinent. 

Higher rates also might put a damper on bidding wars, said Jason Lanyard, of Stribling, who works with many investors who've been snatching up 2-bedrooms condos in the $1.5 million range, which they then rent out.

This duplex penthouse on Avenue C and East 11th Street is pretty nice, or as the brokerbabble puts it, "arguably the most dramatic and glamorous property the East Village has ever seen." It just hit the market for $3.6 million, just over $1,500 per square foot.