420 East 86th Street
420 East 86th Street, New York, NY 10028
Yorkville, Upper East Side
BBL 1015657501 · BIN 1085655
- Year built
- 1935
- Type
- Condop
- Units
- 48
- Landmark
- No
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 420 East 86th Street 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.
420 East 86th Street is a prewar building that trades as a true condominium: fee ownership, deed transfers, no co-op board. That combination is rare in Yorkville. The building is a 1935 six-story elevator house on a 125-foot lot between First and York. It holds 48 condominium units, ranging from units of about 556 gross square feet in the E and H lines to 1,186-square-foot units in the A and D lines.
The fact that shapes every transaction is sponsor concentration. Unit sales began in 1996, and on the current roll the sponsor entity is still the owner of record on 19 of the 48 units. That is below half, so the building is an ownership building rather than a rental wrapper — 28 apartments belong to separate owners, and deeds have gone to unrelated buyers for three decades. But 40 percent in one entity's hands affects financing, the condominium's budget and governance. A buyer should understand it before signing a contract.
The building's history explains how this happened. A converter declared the condominium in the late 1980s. The property went through foreclosure in 1992, and the successor sponsor took title and sold apartments steadily from 1996 to 2003. After that it largely stopped selling and kept the rest.
Architecture and unit composition
Built in 1935, the building belongs to the generation of six-story elevator apartment houses that filled Yorkville's side streets and 86th Street's east end in the 1930s. It has brick elevations with precast concrete ornament and aluminum railings, and an elevator and stair bulkhead on the roof. DOB filings describe wood floor joists, as expected for a mid-rise building of this vintage.
Every floor repeats the same plan. The A and D lines are the largest at about 1,186 gross square feet, B and C about 950, F and G about 845 to 860, and E and H about 556, per DOF records. On the sixth floor the G and H units have been combined into a single unit of about 1,400 square feet. A 2002 DOB filing also proposed combining 5E and 5F, but the tax roll still lists them separately.
Building operations
DOB records show a façade repair program in 2005 covering all elevations, the roof, and the elevator and stair bulkheads. A second program in 2019 replaced brickwork, precast trim and railings, both under the city's façade inspection cycle. In 2012 the boiler was converted from No. 6 to No. 4 oil. In 2020 the building filed to legalize isolated floor-joist repairs made under a DOB violation. That filing was signed off. It is still worth asking about when you review the building's structural history.
No offering plan or financial statements for this building are on file in The Roebling Research Library. Ask the managing agent for the current budget, reserve balance, common-charge arrears, any assessments, and the most recent façade inspection report.
Recent sales
Units trade by the square foot, and sizes vary by line. The E and H units are the smallest entry apartments, and the A and D lines are the largest layouts. Pricing sits below the full-service postwar condominiums on 86th Street and above most Yorkville walk-up co-ops, because fee ownership and condominium rules come at a prewar scale. Sponsor sales and private resales are different transactions: check which one you are comparing against.
Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent closings at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 14, 2025 | 3B | $1,075,000 |
| Jan 14, 2019 | 4A | $1,260,000 |
| Aug 14, 2017 | 1B | $920,000 |
| Mar 21, 2016 | 6E | $550,000 |
| May 27, 2014 | 3G | $750,000 |
| Aug 6, 2013 | 5C | $770,000 |
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 1-01565-7501) 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.
Buying here? Co-op closing costs typically run 2 to 3% of the price. See NYC co-op and condo closing costs, line by line.
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What to know if you’re buying
Sponsor concentration affects your financing. Agency-conforming condominium loans limit how much of a building one owner may hold. At about 40 percent, this building is well above those limits, so many buyers will need a portfolio lender that is willing to approve the building. Test financing before you sign a contract.
Ask what the sponsor units are. The 19 sponsor-held units are probably rented, though public records don't confirm it. Some may hold long-term regulated tenants who remained through the conversion. Ask the managing agent for the sponsor's occupancy, whether it is current on common charges and taxes, and how many board seats it controls.
The condominium questionnaire is where the answers are. The lender's questionnaire and the managing agent's responses will show owner-occupancy, arrears, litigation and reserves. Read them carefully.
There is no tax abatement. The only J-51 on record ended with the 1994 tax year. Model carrying costs on the unit's current tax bill.
Condo mechanics still apply. There is no board interview. A right of first refusal, if the declaration has one, is usually waived as a formality. Confirm the terms on leasing, pets and pieds-à-terre from the by-laws and house rules.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with fee ownership in a prewar building. Buyers who want prewar character without a co-op board have few options in Yorkville.
Plan for financing friction early. Name a lender familiar with the building, or price for a cash-heavy buyer pool. Questions about sponsor concentration will come up. Answering them upfront keeps a deal together.
Compare to the same line. The spread between lines is wide enough that a building average will mislead a buyer.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 420 East 86th Street, also evaluate:
- 425 East 86th Street — a 1929 prewar cooperative across the street; the co-op alternative on the same block
- 153 East 87th Street — a 1928 prewar building structured as a true condominium
- 141 East 88th Street (Philip House) — a 1928 building converted to condominium in 2013; the higher-end prewar condo option
- 237 East 88th Street — a small prewar condominium
- 444 East 87th Street — a 42-unit Yorkville co-op with a similar studio and one-bedroom mix
- 439 East 88th Street — a 32-unit Yorkville co-op from 1915
- 455 East 86th Street — a 1986–1987 postwar condominium across the street
More Upper East Side buildings
- 408 East 79th Street (The Arcadia) — 2005 condominium by Costas Kondylis & Partners
- 415 Main Street (Riverwalk Court) — 2007 condominium by Costas Kondylis & Partners
- 420 East 72nd Street — 1962 co-op
- The Oxford (422 East 72nd Street) — 1990 condominium by Emery Roth & Sons
- 425 East 79th Street — 1955 co-op by H.I. Feldman
- 425 East 86th Street — 1929 co-op by Sugarman & Berger
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Upper East Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper East Side.
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.
Considering a move at 420 East 86th Street?
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