"New York Manhattan Condo Value Drops When Trump Brand Is Attached"

NYT "Trump Brand Condos Down 23% in 10 Years"
Value Rises 9% When Trump Brand Removed

With the U.S. presidential election approaching this November, a report by The New York Times (NYT) revealed that the brand of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is leading in approval ratings, is actually causing a decline in real estate values.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 18th (local time), NYT cited real estate brokerage firm CityRealty, reporting that the prices of seven condos bearing the 'Trump' brand in Manhattan, New York, have fallen by 23% over the 10 years from 2013 to 2023. Real estate data company ATTOM estimated a smaller decline of 17% in the prices of Trump-branded condos during the same period.

In contrast, four condos from which the gold-colored Trump letters were removed saw their prices rise by 9% over the 10 years. Considering that the average condo price in Manhattan increased by 8% during this period, this outperforms the market return.

Stejin van Nieuwenburgh, a professor at Columbia University, stated, "It has been clearly confirmed that the Trump brand is the cause of the (real estate) value decline," adding, "Removing the Trump name from the buildings also removes the value loss associated with the name."

Eric Trump, the second son of former President Trump, refuted these claims. In an email response to NYT, he argued, "You can manipulate data to tell the story you want, but the fact remains that our buildings trade at the highest price per square foot among real estate worldwide, and this cannot be denied."

Meanwhile, on the 16th, former President Trump was hit with a $355 million (approximately 470 billion KRW) fine by the New York Manhattan District Court for inflating assets fraudulently to gain unfair profits. The court ruled that Trump’s family and businesses had inflated assets to secure bank loans. In addition to the fines, Trump and his two sons were stripped of management rights in their New York state businesses for three and two years, respectively.