Cost of Brownstone Roof Rights?
I’m considering buying a top floor condo in a brownstone in Fort Greene/CLinton Hill and am discussing buying the roof rights (or rights to 1/2 of roof) from the owner (sponsor). How much is a reasonable cost for roof rights of a brownstone?
I’m considering buying a top floor condo in a brownstone in Fort Greene/CLinton Hill and am discussing buying the roof rights (or rights to 1/2 of roof) from the owner (sponsor). How much is a reasonable cost for roof rights of a brownstone?
Hey,
Just wondered how this went? Considering doing the same.
Thanks.
I assume the rules are different for condo vs. coop, but in our coop, roof rights were never assigned and to assign them to someone would require a change in the proprietary lease that governs the building. All tenants would have to agree to permit the purchase, the number of shares available in the building would increase, a re-evaluation of the maintance to include insurance, etc. The shareholders would have to determine a selling price for the roof rights and they buyer could agree/negotiate, etc. This didn’t go through in our building because not everyone wanted to sell the roof rights exclusively to the top floor as there’s some interest in a common roof deck. Anyway, a coop perspective.
Hire an appraiser who looks at actual comps. My educated guess though for Fort Greene is $75-$100k — once there is an actual roof deck. Roof rights I’d guess ought to go for 1/2 of that, or whatever you can get them to sell it to you for.
Lots of people add rooftop extensions in the rear of their buildings that do not disrupt visual presence from the street. It’s done all the time, but your extension is just minimized to the rear of the building.
Would have to be a pretty wide brownstone with a tall parapet to be able to have a bulkhead and railing that you can’t see from the street. I’ve climbed out on to mine using the fire escape (in historic Clinton Hill) and none of my neighbors have exploited their roofs.
There’s plenty of roof in many cases that cannot be seen from the street — a simple drawing can show this to Landmarks.
Certainly not worthless.
Depends.
If the bldg is landmarked, roof rights are basically worthless, because Landmarks Commission won’t let you exploit the roof with anything that can be seen from the street. (So, what’s a skylight worth to you? Don’t forget to factor in the liability to the condo ass’n when it leaks.)
If it’s not landmarked, there’s some real value there, and without knowing more about how much the other tenants value the roof, I’d put the number between 5-10% of the purchase price depending on how much value it adds to your unit.