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- Title
BILLIONAIRES' ROW AS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: "INTELLECTUALIZATION" OF REAL PROPERTY IN THE ULTRALUXURY HOUSING MARKET.
- Authors
Daniel Cuatrecasas, Lucas
- Abstract
"Superprime" condominiums -- condos worth more than $10,000,000 -- represent the apex of the land market in global cities. In New York City, several superprime condo developments have sprouted up in recent years, with many of them clustering in an area south of Central Park popularly dubbed Billionaires' Row. This Article argues that these superprime condos, despite being real property, have begun to behave like intellectual property. This "intellectualization" of superprime condos has happened in three mutually reinforcing ways: (1) these condos depend on state regulation to give them surplus value; (2) these condos have become dematerialized; and (3) these condos' dematerialized value -- i.e., the intangible surplus they produce by conveying a narrative about an ultraluxury lifestyle -- is largely untethered to the real property interest that underlies them. Viewing superprime condos as intellectual property offers unique arguments in support of the position that New York City must increase vertical density to alleviate its housing crisis -- a crisis that superprime condos, under New York City's current zoning regime, bring into further relief. Namely, it is not clear what public interest is served by state regulation's facilitation of superprime condos' intangible surplus, nor is it clear why state regulation has no so-called safety valve permitting reduction of that intangible surplus to further broader public goals (e.g., increasing housing stock).
- Subjects
NEW York (N.Y.); INTELLECTUAL property; HOUSING market; CONDOMINIUMS; PUBLIC interest
- Publication
Fordham Urban Law Journal, 2023, Vol 51, Issue 2, p455
- ISSN
0199-4646
- Publication type
Article