当代世界贫富差距悬殊的真实写照：纽约公园大道432号

    不到一年，我们就开始大概知道公园大道432号会是什么样。首先，我们了解到，建造的公寓数量将接近100套，而非原计划的140套。随后我们获悉了该建筑的

    销售工作细节。值得注意的是，麦克洛地产公司（Macklowe Properties）没有将

    公园大道432号的公寓放上StreetEasy和住宅挂牌服务系统（Residential Listing Service, RLS）等大受欢迎的经纪人数据库，而是大力吸引俄罗斯寡头。该公司在莫斯科特维尔大街的丽思卡尔顿酒店（Ritz-Carlton Hotel）设立了流动销售办事处，每天有数十名亿万富翁穿过该酒店大堂。

    到2013年5月，麦克洛宣布，顶层阁楼已经售出，售价高达9500万美元。半数公寓已经签约，总销售额预计高达30亿美元。今年二月，曼哈顿房地产经纪商道格拉斯艾丽曼（Douglas Elliman）成为独家联合销售代理商，帮助销售剩下的公寓。

    人们普遍认为，尽管所有公寓将全部售罄，但该大楼的入住率将始终保持在25%。请记住，这些临时住所每套起价700万美元，还有几套公寓占据了一整层，售价高达约7500万美元。这是全球亿万富豪阶层大大扩充的绝佳例证。中东石油巨头、中国亿万富翁、俄罗斯寡头，以及拉丁美洲贵族，都有一个共同点：钱多得不知道该怎么花，而且都拼命将钱转移到海外。纽约房产既可以帮助他们实现上述愿望，又能作为储值手段。

    截至笔者撰稿时，曼哈顿及其周边地区计划新增八栋超豪华大楼，相关项目进展情况不一。全世界超高净值（UNHW）人群的财富激增，使得这一切成为可能。瑞银（UBS）和Wealth-X进行的一项新研究显示，全球有21.1275万人是资产总额超过3000万美元的超高净值人士。该人群控制的财富总额估计仅略低于30万亿美元。2013年以来，超高净值人士的数量增加了6％，其资产增长了7％。

    不过，上述数字掩盖了超高净值人群中一个更重要的趋势：资产超过10亿美元的人士（约2325人），财富年增长12％，而处于超高净值人群底层的9.1万人，其资产为3000万至4900万美元，财富增幅不到7％，相对较小。那些顶级富豪的财富增长速度，为底层富豪的两倍。今年，资产为7.5亿至10亿美元的超高净值人士，人数增加了20％，超过了1200人。总之，越是有钱人，财富增长越快。

    纽约这样的城市，能建造数十栋超豪华住宅楼，而且栋栋售罄，原因即在此。仅在纽约，估计有8655名常住居民为超高净值人士，在全球城市中独占鳌头。Wealth-X发现，超高净值人士人均拥有2.7套房产，其8％的财富投资于房地产。按理说，随着其财富的增长，他们将有能力持有并投资于更多的高档住宅。

    北美第三高楼——公园大道432号的数十位住户将于2015年春季开始入住。在可能出现通缩、各国央行处于长期危机模式、大量失业以及全球99％的人口工资增长停滞的大背景下，公园大道432号的住户们将开始装修其富丽堂皇的公寓。

    在我们前几代，拔地而起的摩天大楼，往往是为“工作”树立丰碑。与克莱斯勒大厦、世界金融中心、帝国大厦不同的是，公园大道432号是为“拥有”树立丰碑。

    在中世纪，建塔楼是为了在瘟疫和灾难时期，将皇室和封建领主与其他人口隔离开来。这是一道有效的屏障，同时具有实际和象征意义。在美国人口最多的城市，建起高达1400英尺的摩天大楼，里面只有不足100人居住，这或许是上述行为在当代的完美再现。公园大道432号如今独绝天际的身影，是当今世界现状的最好写照，其效果胜过一千位托马斯•皮凯蒂（法国经济学家，探讨贫富差距的畅销书《二十一世纪资本论》作者——译注）奋笔疾书。（财富中文网）

    译者：Hunter

    审校：李翔

    Within a year, we began to get a sense of what 432 Park Avenue would come to represent. First, we learned that the number of condo units built would be closer to 100 than the originally planned 140. Next came details about the building’s sales efforts. Notably, while Macklowe Properties had kept 432 Park Avenue’s units off of popular broker databases like StreetEasy and the Residential Listing Service (RLS), the firm was going full-throttle in its attempt to court the Russian oligarchy. A kind of traveling sales office was set up at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Moscow’s Tverskaya Street, where dozens of billionaires pass through the lobby each day.

    By May 2013, Macklowe had announced that the top-floor penthouse was already sold for an astonishing $95 million. Half of the building’s apartments were under contract, with projections of $3 billion in total sales. This February, Manhattan realtor Douglas Elliman was brought on as the exclusive co-sales agent to help move the rest of the units.

    It is widely believed that the building will only be one-quarter occupied at all times, even though it will be completely sold out. Keep in mind that these are pied-a-terres that begin at $7 million each and include several full-floor parcels in the $75 million range. More than anything else, this speaks to the insatiable appetite of the world’s greatly expanded billionaire class. Middle Eastern oil magnates, Chinese billionaires, Russian oligarchs, and the Latin American aristocracy all have one thing in common: More money than they know what to do with and a desperation to get as much of it out of their home countries as possible. New York real estate works very well as both a facilitator of this as well as a store of value.

    As of this writing, there are currently plans for eight more ultra-luxe towers in and around Manhattan, in various stages of development. The explosion of wealth among ultra high net worth (UNHW) individuals around the world has made all of this possible. According to a new study from UBS and Wealth-X, there are 211,275 people in the world who could be considered ultra high net worth, with assets totaling north of $30 million. The approximate amount of wealth controlled by this group is estimated at just under $30 trillion. And while the number of UHNW people grew by 6% since 2013, their assets grew by 7%.

    But these figures obscure an even more important trend taking root among the UHNW rankings: People with over a billion dollars in assets (there are 2,325 of them) saw their wealth increase by 12% year over year, while those at the bottom of the group—the 91,000 people with assets between $30 million and $49 million—realized a comparatively smaller 7% bump in wealth. Those at the top of the top are seeing their fortunes grow twice as fast as those at the bottom of the top. And the number of UHNW individuals who fall in the $750 million to $1 billion category saw their ranks swell by 20% this year to over 1,200 people. The bottom line is that the richer you are, the faster you’re getting even richer.

    This explains why a city like New York can build dozens of ultra-luxury residential towers and continue to sell out. In New York alone, it is estimated that there are 8,655 full-time residents who would be categorized as ultra-high net worth, the most of any city in the world. Wealth-X finds that the average UHNW individual owns 2.7 properties and that 8% of their wealth is invested in real estate. Logically speaking, as their wealth grows, so too does their capacity to own and invest in an increasing amount of high-end housing.

    This coming spring, the few dozen occupants of 432 Park Avenue, North America’s third-tallest building, will begin to move in. They will furnish their palatial apartments against a global backdrop of deflationary fears, central banks in perpetual crisis mode, massive unemployment, and stubbornly stagnating wage growth for 99% of the world’s population.

    In previous generations, when towers of this scale were erected, they were monuments to working. 432 Park, unlike the Chrysler Building, the World Financial Center, and the Empire State Building, is a monument to owning.

    In the Medieval era, towers were erected to separate royalty and feudal overlords from the rest of the population during times of plague and suffering. It was an effective barrier, both physical and symbolic. A 1,400-foot skyscraper, in America’s most populous city, in which fewer than 100 people will reside, is perhaps the perfect present-day parallel to such behavior. The ascendance of 432 Park Avenue to its now-dominant place in the skyline says more about the state of our world than a thousand Thomas Pikettys typing on a thousand keyboards ever could.