Buying Under Your Personal Name vs. an LLC

Updated Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min read

Short answer: Most buyers should, and do, buy in their own name: 80% of the 47,188 new condo sales on record went to a person, and your own name keeps a mortgage and owner-occupier tax breaks within easy reach. An LLC or trust makes sense mainly for privacy on the public deed, estate planning or a rental you want kept separate. The deeds show it's a top-of-market choice: under $1 million, 10% of buyers use an entity, entities pass half at $5M–$10M, and at $20 million and up 91% do.

The More It Costs, the Less Likely the Buyer's Name Is on the Deed

Share of new condo buyers who took title as an LLC, trust or other entity, by price

10%Under $1M
17%$1M–$2M
27%$2M–$3M
39%$3M–$5M
52%$5M–$10M
73%$10M–$20M
91%$20M+

Sponsor sales of one home, 2001–2026. Hover a column for the number of sales.

Entity buyers pass half at $5M–$10M. Above $20 million, 72% of buyers are LLCs alone. At 220 Central Park South, the most entity-heavy building we track, 81 of the 85 sponsor sales went to an entity.

At the Same Price, Brooklyn Buyers Use Their Own Name

On raw numbers, Manhattan looks like LLC country: 31% of its buyers used an entity, against 10% in Brooklyn and 12% in Queens. But most of that gap is price, since Manhattan sells far more expensive homes. Compare homes at the same prices and it narrows: 19% in Manhattan, 17% in Queens and 10% in Brooklyn.

Price	Manhattan	Brooklyn	Queens
Under $1M	15%	9%	10%
$1M–$2M	23%	10%	16%
$2M–$3M	31%	14%	47%
$3M–$5M	41%	26%	–
$5M–$10M	52%	41%	–
All prices	31%	10%	12%

Share of sponsor sales that went to an LLC, trust or other entity. – : fewer than 100 sales.

So Manhattan and Queens buyers behave much alike. Brooklyn is the outlier, the borough where buyers most often put their own name on the deed. Queens also has a surprise at the high end: at $2 million to $3 million, 47% of its 197 sales went to an entity, more than Manhattan at that price.

At the Same Price, Smaller Homes Go to LLCs

Bigger homes go to entities more often, from 13% of homes under 600 square feet to 55% at 3,000 and up, but that's mostly price again. Hold the price steady and it flips. Between $1 million and $2 million, 21% of homes under 900 square feet went to an entity, against 14% of larger ones. A small, pricey apartment is what investors and pied-à-terre buyers tend to want, and they're the buyers most likely to use an LLC.

Entity buyers by home size

Under 600 sf	13%
600–899 sf	14%
900–1,299 sf	16%
1,300–1,999 sf	25%
2,000–2,999 sf	34%
3,000+ sf	55%

The 32,470 sales whose unit we matched to the plan's price list.

LLCs Hold Steady; Trusts Are on the Rise

We checked whether more buyers are turning to LLCs over time. They aren't. Since 2015 the LLC share has stayed between 12% and 19% of sponsor sales every year, rising and falling with how many luxury towers were closing at the time.

Trusts are the exception. More buyers now hold a new condo in a trust, usually for estate planning. In Manhattan, trusts went from 4% of buyers in 2015–2019 to 9% in 2023–2026.

Share of new condo buyers who took title in a trust, by year closed

1.5%2010
1.3%2011
0.6%2012
2.5%2013
3.1%2014
2.4%2015
2.5%2016
2%2017
2.9%2018
2.9%2019
2.7%2020
3.4%2021
4.1%2022
4.3%2023
5.2%2024
5.3%2025
6.6%2026

Sponsor sales of one home. 2026 is a partial year. Hover a column for the number of sales.

Should You Buy in Your Name or an LLC?

Why buyers use an LLC or trust:

Privacy. Every deed is public in ACRIS, the city's property records. An LLC's name keeps yours off the deed search, though not from the lender, the IRS or the city.
Estate planning. A home in a revocable trust can pass to heirs without probate.
Investment. Owners who rent the apartment out often hold it in an LLC to keep it separate from their other assets.

What it can cost you:

Financing. Most residential mortgages are made to people, not LLCs. Many entity buyers pay cash.
Tax breaks for owner-occupiers. Benefits tied to a primary residence can be harder to claim when an entity holds title.
Moving it later. Deeding a home from your name into an LLC after closing is a new transfer, and can owe transfer taxes.
Reporting rules. FinCEN exempted U.S.-formed companies from the Corporate Transparency Act's ownership filings in March 2025. Its rule requiring a report on every all-cash home purchase by an entity or trust took effect March 1, 2026, and a federal court in Texas vacated it on March 19, 2026. The government has appealed, so check with your attorney what applies when you close.

Decide before you sign the contract, since the buyer named there is the one who closes. See closing costs for a new NYC condo and what happens at the first resale.

How This Is Counted

We read the buyer names on the deed for the sponsor's first sale of each home in the 2,646 condo buildings we've matched to city records, closed from 2001 to 2026. A sale counts as an entity purchase when every buyer on the deed is an LLC, trust, corporation, partnership or other entity; a person buying alongside a trust counts as a person. Deeds covering more than one home, or a home plus parking or storage, are left out. Same-price borough shares cover the 40,120 sales under $3 million: each borough's share in each price band (under $1 million, $1 million to $2 million, $2 million to $3 million) is weighted by the citywide mix of sales across those bands. Home size comes from the plan's price list where we could match the unit (32,470 sales). Resales aren't included.

FAQ

Can you buy a NYC condo through an LLC?

Yes. Condos, unlike most co-ops, generally let an LLC or trust take title. 20% of new condo buyers we checked used an entity.

Does an LLC make a NYC condo purchase anonymous?

Only on the public deed. The LLC's name is what shows in ACRIS, but the lender, tax authorities and your closing attorney know who's behind it. A U.S.-formed LLC no longer files ownership reports with FinCEN, and the federal rule that would have reported all-cash entity purchases was struck down in March 2026 (the government has appealed).

Do most NYC condo buyers use an LLC?

No. 80% buy in their own name. Entities become the majority only at $5M–$10M and up.

Which borough has the most LLC buyers?

Manhattan, at 31% of new condo sales, mostly because its homes cost more. At the same prices it's 19% in Manhattan, 17% in Queens and 10% in Brooklyn.

Where this comes from: buyer names on deeds and transfer tax filings in NYC's ACRIS records, matched to the offering plans on file. Updated October 2026.