502 East 81st Street
502 East 81st Street, New York, NY 10028
Yorkville, Upper East Side
BBL 1015770049
- Type
- Condominium
502 East 81st Street is a ground-up boutique condominium at the corner of York Avenue and East 81st — a genuinely scarce product type in Yorkville, where the housing stock skews to pre-war walk-ups, post-war white-brick rentals, and a handful of older co-ops. Developed by Rybak Development and designed by Zproekt Architecture with S20M as design architect, it is a small, ten-story building conceived around full-floor living: roughly ten condominium homes, most occupying an entire floor, each reached by a private elevator landing.
The building rose on a corner assembly that previously held low-rise commercial space, and it delivers what the surrounding inventory largely cannot — new construction, condominium ownership, contemporary ceiling heights and systems, and on-site parking, all on a quiet residential stretch of the far East Side. For a buyer who wants the flexibility of a condominium rather than the board process of a co-op, in a neighborhood that has historically offered very few new condos, 502 East 81st is a rare opening.
The location is the other half of the story: an East End block close to Carl Schurz Park and the East River esplanade, the Second Avenue Q at 86th Street, and the established Yorkville retail of York and First Avenues.
Recent sales
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01577-0049) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
This is a small new-development condominium, so a purchase is a new-construction transaction rather than a resale. The defining advantages are flexibility and scale: a full-floor, four-bedroom home with private elevator-landing entry, contemporary systems, and the option of on-site parking — a package that is essentially unavailable in the surrounding pre-war and post-war stock. Buyers should weigh floor, exposure, and outdoor space, and review the offering plan's common-charge and tax projections, which in new construction set the long-run carrying cost.
Because the building is so small, inventory is thin and each home is distinct — there is no large stack of identical lines to negotiate against. That scarcity rewards buyers who move decisively on the floor and layout they want.
What to know if you’re selling
The condominium structure and new construction are the marketing core. Full-floor four-bedroom homes, private elevator landings, on-site parking, and contemporary systems distinguish a resale here from anything in Yorkville's older stock, and condominium ownership itself — financing latitude, ownership flexibility, a faster closing path — is a durable draw for the buyer this building attracts.
Benchmark a resale to the limited set of new and recent East Side condominiums rather than to the neighborhood's co-ops, and lead with what is scarce: new construction, full-floor scale, and parking on the far East Side. A resale clears through a right-of-first-refusal rather than a co-op board, a faster and more predictable path that is itself a selling point. With so few homes, available inventory will be thin, and a well-positioned resale benefits from the building's limited supply of comparable product.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 502 East 81st Street, also evaluate these nearby Upper East Side and Yorkville buildings:
- 401 East 84th Street — Yorkville full-service building nearby
- 515 East 79th Street — East End cooperative a few blocks south
- 112 East 81st Street — pre-war East 81st Street co-op to the west
- 140 East 81st Street — established East 81st Street cooperative peer
- 163 East 81st Street — East 81st Street co-op on the corridor
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Upper East Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper East Side.
Considering a move at 502 East 81st Street?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 502 East 81st 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.