40 East 80th Street

40 East 80th Street is a clean post-war tower — a brick-and-masonry slab set on a mid-block 80th Street parcel between Madison and Park, with a ground-floor commercial component and residences rising above. The architecture is of its era: efficient, vertical, and engineered for light and air rather than for the ornament of the pre-war buildings around it. Its real architectural advantage is height — at twenty-six stories, the upper floors command open views and the kind of sun that the neighborhood's shorter masonry co-ops rarely offer.

With 41 residential apartments across that height, the building is intimate per floor, which keeps the common areas calm and the elevator service quick. Layouts are post-war regular — well-proportioned rooms, generous windows, and the practical floor plans that modern construction allows — an easier renovation canvas than many pre-war apartments and a comfortable fit for contemporary living.

40 East 80th Street is run as a full-service cooperative with a full-time doorman and a live-in superintendent. On-site amenities include a bike room, a central laundry room, and private individual storage cages. The board is notably accommodating: the building is pet-friendly (larger pets welcome with board approval), and it permits subletting, pied-à-terre ownership, co-purchasing, guarantors, and gifting, and is open to investor and international buyers. On the financial side, the co-op requires a minimum 25% down payment (flexible financing above that) and charges a 2.5% flip tax paid by the purchaser at closing. That combination of full service and liberal house rules is genuinely uncommon for the Upper East Side and is the building's defining feature.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. 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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $522/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 5.9% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01491-0048). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. 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.

The board is the headline. Subletting, pied-à-terre ownership, co-purchasing, guarantors, gifting, and investor/international buyers are all permitted — a rare degree of latitude for the Upper East Side. If you want flexibility in how you own and use the apartment, this is one of the few prime co-ops that allows it.

Buy the height and the light. The post-war tower's upper floors deliver open views and sun that the surrounding pre-wars cannot — a concrete advantage in a neighborhood of shorter masonry buildings.

Know the terms. A 25% minimum down payment and a 2.5% flip tax paid by the purchaser are the headline numbers — note that the flip tax falls on the buyer here, which is worth factoring into your acquisition budget.

Lead with the flexibility and the views. A full-service co-op that permits sublets, pied-à-terres, and investor buyers — one block from Central Park, with high-floor light — reaches an audience that the neighborhood's strict pre-wars cannot. Make the rules and the outlook your headline.

Position to the buyer the building actually attracts. Pied-à-terre purchasers, investors, and international buyers all cross-shop flexible co-ops; the building's latitude is a marketing asset, not a footnote.

Benchmark to post-war full-service towers near the park. Comparable analysis belongs against other doorman post-war co-ops in Carnegie Hill and the East 80s, not against pre-war masonry buildings — the height, the views, and the rules set the building's tier.

If you're considering 40 East 80th Street, also evaluate these nearby Upper East Side cooperatives:

• 201 East 80th Street — full-service Upper East Side building nearby
• 180 East 79th Street — Upper East Side cooperative to the south
• 50 East 79th Street — full-service cooperative nearby
• 175 East 77th Street — post-war full-service building nearby
• 200 East 74th Street — the white-brick Lenox Hill co-op