HARLEM
2070 Fifth Ave.
Five-story townhouse

Asking price: $2.4 million
Selling price: $2.3 million
Time on market: 4 months

STAKING A CLAIM Prices like the one for this Fifth Avenue townhouse are becoming more and more common in Harlem, David Daniels of Corcoran Real Estate Group, who represented the sellers, said. “There’s this thing with Harlem, or really West Harlem, now reaching an over $2 million mark for townhouses,” Mr. Daniels said. “This type of property is significantly in demand. I had four offers pour in almost immediately.”

Two good friends, a middle-aged man and woman, bought the 5,000-square-foot Flemish-style townhouse about a year ago. They decided to do a gut renovation of the property and turn it into three rental units, planning to make the garden-floor triplex their home. “The garden-floor triplex apartment has two or three bedrooms, depending on what you do with the third room,” Mr. Daniels said. “It is designed as a very open two-bedroom suite with three floors to live on with access to the back yard.”

The parlor level of the triplex in the house is like a loft space, he said, and since the townhouse has five floors – most have four – it can fit three units. The third floor of the house is a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment, and the fourth and fifth floors make up the third apartment, a duplex. Each apartment has its own central air-conditioning unit.

After the renovation, the friends changed their minds about living in the townhouse, however, and decided to sell it. The man, who is in the technology business, and the woman, who is a visual artist, will remain in their respective homes. “One has property in downtown and one has property in Queens,” Mr. Daniels said.

A man from Queens bought the property. “He really wanted to buy before it is too late,” Mr. Daniels said. “He didn’t want the opportunity of owning in Manhattan to slip through his fingers.” The buyer, who is single and works in the TV industry, had been looking for a townhouse with rentals for about a year. He hasn’t decided whether he wants to live in one of the rental units, but Mr. Daniels said he thinks the buyer probably will rent them all out since it is an investment property. “It’s like an investment with an emotional tie,” Mr. Daniels said. “There was that desire to own a piece of Manhattan.”

UPPER WEST SIDE
59 W. 83rd St.
One-bedroom co-op

Asking price: $589,000
Selling price: $589,000
Time on market: 7 1/2 months

SMELLS LIKE HOME A young Frenchman, Clement Gavarry, bought this duplex apartment in a brownstone on West 83rd Street. Lynne Roberts of Bellmarc, who represented the buyer, said Mr. Gavarry is a perfumer for the world’s largest perfume company, International Flavors and Fragrances.

Mr. Gavarry comes from a family of perfumers and is quite talented, Ms. Roberts said. “He designed the new perfume for Prada and Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker,” she said. “He won the award for the rising star of the year in the perfume industry.”

Mr. Gavarry had been renting on West 70th Street and wanted to stay on the Upper West Side. He thought this 750-square-foot apartment was a good investment, Ms. Roberts said. “He wanted something with character. The apartment has exposed brick, a fireplace, and architectural detail. It’s romantic.”

The apartment, which is on the first and second floors of the brownstone, has two fireplaces, a spiral staircase, and 11-foot ceilings on both floors. The large bedroom on the second floor also features a Juliet balcony. Although the kitchen needs to be redone, there is a marble bathroom with a Jacuzzi, Ms. Roberts said. The dining alcove on the first floor is by a bay window that looks out over 83rd Street. “It’s a very charming street view – it’s all brownstones and treelined,” she said.

The seller is a radiologist who moved to Australia. He downsized to a studio apartment in Manhattan that he uses as a pied-a-terre.

GRAMERCY
210 E. 15th St.
Studio co-op

Asking price: $359,000
Selling price: $359,000
Time on market: 6 weeks

TOUGH FIND Rachel Gertner of Bellmarc, who represented the buyer, found this apartment for her friends’ son, Robert Taichman. Mr. Taichman, who just finished his first year at Brooklyn Law School, needed to find a building that would allow his parents to purchase an apartment for him. Originally, Mr. Taichman was looking for an apartment in the West Village, but buildings all over New York have made it harder and harder for parents to purchase apartments for their children, especially when the child is not working.

Ms. Gertner finally found a postwar doorman building in the Gramercy area that allowed Mr. Traichman’s parents to purchase this 400-square-foot apartment on the second floor. “They were originally looking for a higher floor with better views, but since the main criteria was for the parents to be able to purchase the apartment, they had to settle for lesser views,” Ms. Gertner said. “They settled for the building and not the apartment.” The building also includes a roof deck and a fitness center.

The studio apartment has northern exposure and a partial view of Rutherford Park. “It overlooks the tree lined block,” Ms. Gertner said. “It’s a wonderful, really quiet tree lined block in the heart of the Gramercy area.” The inside of the apartment will probably need some work Ms. Gertner said. The kitchen has been renovated, but the bathroom is only in fair condition. Mr. Traichman’s father is in the construction business, so Ms. Gertner said they will try to renovate the bathroom and build another closet because the closet space is minimal. Previously, Mr. Traichman had been living at home with his parents in Midwood, Brooklyn.

MIDTOWN WEST

347 W. 57th St.
Three-bedroom condo
Asking price: $1.79 million
Selling price: $1.78 million
Time on market: 8 weeks

WEEKEND GETAWAY The previous owners of this three-bedroom apartment near Lincoln Center on the West Side were a Korean couple who had lived there before they decided to return to Seoul, Korea. Both of them had recently retired – the wife was a semipro golfer and the husband had a career at the United Nations – and wanted to try living in Korea again. They had bought this condo in a full-service doorman building because they wanted to downsize from a much larger apartment they had in the U.N. Plaza area, said Dan Danielli of Halstead Property, who represented the seller.

The buyers of the approximately 1,400-square-foot apartment are an Indian couple who currently live on Long Island. They have a daughter who attends Fordham Law School, which is right behind this building and is part of the reason they bought the apartment. They plan to use the $1.78 million apartment as their second home, and their daughter will live there while she is attending Fordham Law School. “There aren’t too many three-bedroom condos on the West Side under $2 million,” Mr. Danielli said. “So this was a well priced apartment.”

The 35th-floor apartment has northern and southern exposure and a terrace overlooking Lincoln Center. “They loved the space and the views and the light,” Mr. Danielli said. “They are going to live there and enjoy it.” The previous owner had added pre-war details and reconfigured the layout in order to improve the flow of the space. Mr. Danielli said the living room used to be a master bedroom, the formal dining room used to be a foyer, and the two bedrooms next to the living room used to be the living room. The apartment is much more open now.