What Brooklyn Condo Buyers Actually Pay More For

Updated Oct 16, 2026 · 6 min read

Two apartments in the same new Brooklyn condo can sell for very different prices per square foot. We matched 6,284 sponsor sales in 609 Brooklyn condo buildings to the unit details in their offering plans. The same few things raised or lowered the price, building after building: height, size, bedrooms, outdoor space and the penthouse label.

Each figure below compares apartments inside the same building that closed in the same quarter, so location, finishes and market timing are already accounted for. Every one held up in sales from both 2015–2019 and 2020–2026.

Each Floor Up Adds About 1.2%

In the same building, every floor higher adds about 1.2% to the price per square foot (95% confidence range 0.9% to 1.5%, across 354 buildings). It was 1.2% in 2015–2019 sales and 1.2% in 2020–2026: one of the steadiest numbers in the data.

It adds up. Compared with the second floor, a sixth-floor apartment of the same size sells for about 7% more per square foot, and a tenth-floor one about 12% more. For a 1,000-square-foot apartment at the typical Brooklyn new-condo price of $1,199 per square foot, floor 10 over floor 2 is roughly $142,000.

Ground floors are the exception. They often look expensive per square foot. That's probably mostly because many come with a cellar or duplex level that Schedule A doesn't count in the square footage, so the buyer gets more space than the price per square foot suggests. Check the plan's "uninhabitable" or cellar column before comparing a garden unit with the floors above.

Bigger Apartments Cost Less per Square Foot

A larger apartment costs more in total, but less for each square foot. In the same building, an apartment 10% larger sells for about 2.1% less per square foot (95% range 1.6% to 2.7% less, 352 buildings; 2.4% in 2015–2019, 2.1% in 2020–2026).

Comparing a studio's price per square foot with a three-bedroom's in the same building isn't apples to apples. When you judge whether a unit is priced fairly, compare it with apartments of a similar size. Our unit sizes page shows what's typical.

Bedrooms Count, Not Just Square Feet

Size isn't everything. Holding square footage and bathrooms equal, one more bedroom adds about 3.7% per square foot (95% range 1.4% to 6.0%, 297 buildings). Buyers pay for a layout that works: a two-bedroom carved out of the same footprint as a big one-bedroom sells for more.

If you don't hold bathrooms equal, the extra bedroom looks worth about 7.9%. Part of that is the extra bathroom that usually comes with it. Bathrooms seem to matter on their own (about 6.7% more), though that one didn't hold up as clearly in the older sales.

Private Outdoor Space Adds About 5.5%

A private terrace, balcony or yard raises the price per interior square foot by about 5.5% (95% range 3.5% to 7.5%, 3,101 sales in 203 buildings; 8.9% in 2015–2019, 4.7% in 2020–2026). Among apartments that have outdoor space, each extra 100 square feet adds about 1.2% more. On a 1,000-square-foot apartment at $1,199 per square foot, a terrace is worth roughly $66,000.

That's a closed-sale premium, after floor and size are taken into account. Developers' asking prices in Brooklyn show a smaller gap; see who gets outdoor space and what it costs.

Penthouses Carry About 12% on Top

An apartment labeled "PH" or "Penthouse" sells for about 12% more per square foot than the floor-by-floor trend predicts for its height (95% range 9% to 15%, 127 penthouse sales in 39 buildings). That's on top of the floor premium, so a penthouse is the most expensive space per square foot in most buildings that have one. In 2015–2019 the penthouse premium rests on only a handful of buildings, so treat the exact size with some care.

What This Means If You're Buying

• Price per square foot isn't a fair yardstick by itself. Adjust for floor, size and layout before calling one unit a bargain.
• A low floor with a terrace can cost about as much per square foot as a higher floor without one.
• A well-planned smaller unit (more bedrooms in the same space) sells at a premium per square foot.
• Inside one building, prices are predictable. A sale typically lands within about 5% of its building's median price per square foot. Use the building's own closed sales as your benchmark.

Every new condo's offering plan lists each apartment's size, bedrooms, floor and outdoor space in Schedule A. Look up a building on The Condo Book Project to compare units the way buyers price them.

How This Is Counted

We started from 7,324 sponsor (first) sales: deeds recorded in NYC ACRIS, each matched to its apartment in the building's offering plan Schedule A, filed with the New York Attorney General. The buildings are Brooklyn condos whose plans were accepted 2015–2025. We removed sales that couldn't be tied to one building, sales that couldn't be confirmed as from the sponsor, sales closing more than six years after the plan was accepted, prices under $200,000 or over $10 million, and outliers in price per square foot. That leaves 6,284 sales in 609 buildings across 42 neighborhoods.

Each effect comes from a regression that compares apartments within the same building and closing quarter (4,842 sales in 355 buildings with at least three sales), with errors clustered by building. We quote only effects that are statistically significant and point the same way, with a confidence range that excludes zero, in both 2015–2019 and 2020–2026 sales. Each must also rest on at least 30 buildings.

Limits: sponsor sales only, no resales. Square footage is the plan's interior figure, which can leave out cellar space. Deed prices don't net out sponsor concessions. Updated October 2026.

Related: What Queens Condo Buyers Actually Pay More For · Do NYC Condos Near the Subway Cost More?