1040 Madison Avenue
1040 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10075
Upper East Side
BBL 1014910016 · BIN 1046434
- Year built
- 1925
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark
- No
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2025
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- Recent range
- $3.3M – $3.7M
- Listing discount
- 3.3%
- Recorded transfers
- 16
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 1040 Madison Avenue would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.
1040 Madison Avenue is a rare thing: a small, full-service pre-war cooperative perched at the very heart of the Madison Avenue gallery-and-boutique corridor, a block from Central Park and minutes from the Metropolitan Museum and Museum Mile. Built in 1925 over a ground-floor retail base, it puts a handful of large residences directly above one of the most prestigious shopping and art-dealing stretches in the world — an address that buys both location and discretion.
What sets the building apart is its scale relative to its size. With just 18 apartments across 14 stories, it lives like a collection of private floors rather than a conventional apartment house. The residences are grandly proportioned, with high ceilings, generous rooms, and the architectural detail of mid-1920s construction — the kind of homes that draw collectors and discerning Upper East Side buyers who want pre-war grandeur without a large, impersonal building.
For a buyer who values the Madison Avenue address, proximity to the park and museums, and a boutique full-service co-op, 1040 Madison occupies a specific and coveted niche.
Architecture and unit composition
The building is a 1925 pre-war apartment house above a Madison Avenue retail base — a configuration common to the avenue's commercial blocks, where ground-floor galleries and boutiques sit beneath residential floors. Rising 14 stories on a relatively small footprint, it holds only 18 apartments, which means low density per floor and the privacy that comes with it.
The residences are the draw: grandly scaled rooms, high ceilings, and the architectural detail of the era, in layouts large enough that the building reads as a stack of substantial homes. Many apartments have been finished to a high collector-grade standard over the years. The combination of pre-war proportion and boutique scale is exactly what buyers at this end of the market seek.
Building operations
1040 Madison is a full-service boutique cooperative. A full-time doorman staffs the entrance, and shareholders have access to a bicycle room and private storage. The small unit count produces attentive, personal management and a tight-knit shareholder community — the operating profile of an exclusive small building rather than a large institution.
The co-op's policies are clearly defined: it permits pets, allows pieds-à-terre, and permits washer/dryers in apartments — a meaningful convenience in a pre-war building. Subletting is permitted with board approval, and there is a 2% flip tax paid by the purchaser on resale. Purchases proceed through a standard board application and interview. The flexibility on pets, pieds-à-terre, and in-unit laundry makes the building accommodating by pre-war standards.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $7,239/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $34
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available filing classified the facade as SWARMP — Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program: the engineer identified conditions requiring monitoring or repair before the next inspection cycle. The scope, timeline, and how the building funds the work are building-specific — we review the filings and board materials for you.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2020–25. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 22, 2025 | 10E | 3 BR · 3 BA | $3,700,000 | -7.5% | |
| Jul 27, 2023 | 5E | 2 BR · 2.5 BA | $3,335,000 | -4.7% | |
| Sep 29, 2021 | 12E | 3 BR · 3 BA | $3,500,000 | -4.1% | |
| Jun 4, 2021 | 7E | 2 BR · 3 BA | $4,000,000 | +0.0% | |
| May 25, 2021 | 9E | 3 BR · 3 BA | $3,335,000 | -3.3% | |
| Jun 22, 2017 | 6E | 2 BR · 2 BA · 2,200 sf | $3,800,000 | $1,727/sf | -4.8% |
| Jun 21, 2012 | 1 | 2 BR · 2,000 sf | $1,600,000 | $800/sf | -8.6% |
| Jul 28, 2010 | 9 | 4 BR | $7,000,000 | -2.8% |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2017): a median $1,727/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 3.3% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01491-0016) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.
What to know if you’re buying
This is a buy for the address, the scale, and the boutique service. A large, high-ceilinged pre-war home directly on the Madison gallery corridor, a block from the park and museums, is a scarce product, and the 18-unit count means privacy and a personal building. Confirm the exact layout, exposure, and finish level, and weigh the fact that residences sit above ground-floor retail.
The policy posture is accommodating: pets, pieds-à-terre, in-unit washer/dryers, and board-approved sublets are all permitted. Budget the 2% buyer-paid flip tax into your acquisition costs, since it applies at purchase, and prepare a thorough board package — small, exclusive co-ops underwrite carefully. For a part-time buyer or a collector, the combination of flexibility and location is the core of the value.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the address and the scale. A large pre-war residence on the Madison Avenue gallery corridor, a block from Central Park and the Met, in an 18-unit boutique co-op, is a description that sells itself to the high-end Upper East Side buyer. The washer/dryer, pied-à-terre, and pet flexibility broaden that pool further.
Scarcity is decisively on the seller's side: with so few apartments and such rare turnover, qualified buyers for this address often have no alternative in the building. Price to the specific home — scale, ceiling height, exposure, and finish — rather than a generic per-foot figure, and make the buyer-paid flip tax clear up front. Prepare the board package early so a careful application clears cleanly.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 1040 Madison Avenue, these nearby Madison and East Side cooperatives belong on the same shortlist:
- 1033 Madison Avenue — Madison Avenue cooperative nearby
- 1095 Madison Avenue — pre-war Madison Avenue co-op
- 1115 Madison Avenue — Madison Avenue cooperative to the north
- 10 East 70th Street — pre-war co-op on the Frick block
- 133 East 80th Street — classic pre-war side-street cooperative
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Upper East Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper East Side.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
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