By Serj Markarian, Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker

Foreign buyers and sellers continue to play an active role in NYC real estate, despite past slowdowns and shifting regulations. While their presence hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic highs, they remain a steady—and in some cases growing—force in the market, particularly in the luxury segment.

Since the second quarter of 2022, the U.S. dollar has sharply declined, making New York City condos appear significantly cheaper to international buyers. That decline hasn’t let up—the dollar is down nearly 11% since the start of the year—its worst start in more than 50 years, according to The New York Times.

UrbanDigs co-founder John Walkup recently analyzed four key currencies often used by institutional and high-net-worth investors in NYC real estate—the British pound, euro, Swiss franc, and Swedish krona. His findings? Investors transacting in these currencies are effectively getting a “price cut” before even entering negotiations, thanks to the dollar’s slide.

According to Walkup, this shift is creating new opportunities at a time when many domestic buyers remain on the sidelines due to rising mortgage rates and broader economic uncertainty. He points to “a mismatch between soft sentiment, firm pricing, and currency-driven discounts” as a contributing factor to the recent year-over-year increase in median sales prices across Manhattan and Brooklyn. Indeed, the pricing stability seen last quarter—despite a rocky start—may partly be due to renewed foreign activity in the luxury sector.

For international investors, this currency advantage can be substantial. Since April 2022, some prices have effectively dropped by as much as 18% due to exchange rate movements alone.

A recent analysis by The Real Deal found that in the first half of 2025, there was approximately one foreign buyer for every two foreign sellers—the lowest ratio since the first half of 2020. Still, new development sales teams are reporting an uptick in Chinese buyers, many of whom are seeking to move capital into more stable markets like New York amid tightening financial controls at home.

Whether foreign buyers can continue to buoy NYC’s market remains to be seen—but for now, the dollar’s continued weakness appears to be working in their favor.

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