High-rise condos sprouting / Luxury residences in San Francisco are plentiful as developers jump into market sector that hasn’t slowed
Marni Leff Kottle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Luxury living in San Francisco traditionally has meant a Pacific Heights mansion or a house perched on a bluff in Sea Cliff. But with a new wave of glitzy, high-rise condo towers south of Market Street, developers are trying to change that.
As many as 30,000 condos are under construction, planned or proposed in San Francisco and about half of those units will probably wind up being built in the next five years, according to Foresight Analytics, a consulting firm. “San Francisco, up until recently, has never really been a city for high-rise residential development,” said Don Peebles, a Florida developer who is working on two high-end projects in San Francisco. “An evolution in the South of Market area has really taken place over the last 15 years.” But with the influx of new building, the question is how quickly developers will be able to find buyers, and at what price. So far, the San Francisco new condo sales, for the most part, have been sheltered from the kinds of decline other segments of the Bay Area housing market have seen.
At the highest end, the market is an island governed by its own set of rules with buyers who have few financial constraints or in some cases are shopping for their second or third home. But with developers taking deposits of just 3 to 5 percent for many of the most expensive units in the city, some economists question whether buyers will go through with their purchases a year or more from now when it”s time to close the deal.
About 7,500 new condos are scheduled to open next year and the year after — including high-profile projects such as One Rincon Hill and the Infinity.
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