Who Manages New NYC Condos, and What the Managing Agent Costs

Updated Oct 20, 2026 · 4 min read

Short answer: Across 1,616 NYC condo offering plans accepted since 2016 that name a manager, the median outside managing agent is paid $910 per home a year, about $21,800 for the whole building. The fee per home falls with size: $1,350 in buildings of up to 10 homes against $640 in buildings of 50 or more. 46% of plans (750) are managed by the sponsor itself at first, 599 of them for no fee; among outside firms, FirstService Residential New York, Inc. is named most often.

Free Sponsor Management Hides a Cost

Sponsor management is growing: 36% of plans accepted 2016 to 2020, 52% since 2021. The free ones are the budgets to discount. Pricing in a typical outside firm for the building's size raises the first-year budget by a median 24% across 524 free sponsor-managed budgets, and by 10% or more in 97% of them.

The rule behind it: the Attorney General's condo plan rules (13 NYCRR 20.3(h)(4)(ix)) require a plan with no managing agent in the budget to flag it as a special risk, list the work owners will have to do, and say common charges will rise once a manager is hired. If the budgeted fee is well below the going rate, the plan must state the going rate. The plan for 87 Irving Place puts it plainly: charges will rise "by at least 25% or $25,000."

The Managing Agents Named Most Often

283 firms are named in 854 plans. The most frequent is FirstService Residential New York, Inc., with 75; the top ten account for 36% of the plans that name an outside firm. In Brooklyn, the firms named most are MRE Property Management LLC (45), Monarch Realty Group (23) and Top Quality Management (20).

Managing agent	Plans	Brooklyn	Manhattan	Queens	Median fee per home / year
FirstService Residential New York, Inc.	75	17	53	5	$830
MRE Property Management LLC	48	45	2	1	$900
Monarch Realty Group	40	23	13	4	$940
Choice NY Property Management, LLC	35	13	18	4	$840
FIDY Management Inc.	24	11	7	6	$870
Top Quality Management	21	20	0	1	$1,010
Douglas Elliman Property Management	18	0	18	0	$940
D&D Management Services Corp.	17	11	4	2	$780
Century Management Services, Inc.	15	1	14	0	$1,470
First Class Management, Inc.	15	13	1	1	$670
Halstead Management Company, LLC	13	1	12	0	$1,020
NYRET Property Management LLC	13	13	0	0	$500
AKAM Associates, Inc.	12	2	3	7	$720
Pinnacle Managing Co., LLC	10	3	2	5	$510
Stone Edge Management	10	10	0	0	$730

Fees are shown where at least three of a firm's plans state one. Click a firm for its buildings.

What the Fee Costs Per Home

The management fee is one line of the first-year budget (Schedule B), so it is part of every owner's common charges. By borough, the median fee per home is $1,290 in Manhattan, $900 in Brooklyn and $630 in Queens.

Median managing agent fee per home, per year, by building size

Up to 10 homes	$1,350
11–25	$1,000
26–49	$833
50 or more	$643

Plans accepted since 2016 that name an outside managing agent and state its first-year fee.

Small buildings pay more per home because a managing agent has a floor: the same bookkeeping, insurance renewals and board meetings, split among fewer owners. For the rest of the budget, see where common charges go and how much common charges should be.

What to Check in the Offering Plan

Who is named. The plan names the first managing agent and summarizes its agreement. A sponsor-managed building has no outside firm yet. Look for the special-risk paragraph and the "prevailing cost" it states, and add that to the budget yourself.
The fee and its term. First agreements are usually short, and the plan says how the board can end one. A fee missing from the budget will show up in common charges later.
What's extra. Agreements often bill separately for closings, sublet packages and capital projects.
The rest of the budget. See Schedule A and Schedule B and reserve funds.

Every firm and the buildings it manages are on the managing agents page.

FAQ

How much does a managing agent cost for a NYC condo?

In offering plans accepted since 2016, the median is $910 per home a year, or about $21,800 per building, from the 618 plans that name an outside firm and state its fee.

Which company manages the most new NYC condos?

FirstService Residential New York, Inc., named in 75 plans accepted since 2016.

Is the management fee part of common charges?

Yes. It is a line in the building's budget, which common charges pay for.

What happens when a sponsor-managed condo hires a managing agent?

Common charges go up. In the free sponsor-managed budgets we read, adding the median fee an outside firm charges a building that size raises the budget by a median 24%. The plan must warn of this as a special risk.

Which plans are counted?

NYC condo offering plans with residential homes accepted by the Attorney General since 2016 that name a manager, read from each plan's management section. Firms are grouped as on our managing agents page. Fees are the first-year annual fee the plan states, divided by its residential homes. 12 plans say a manager is still to be chosen. Updated Oct 27, 2026. The free-management gap: the median outside fee per home for the plan's size band, times its homes, over the first-year budget's total expenses, in sponsor-managed plans that state no fee.