Many New Yorkers are quietly enjoying cushy lifestyles in ritzy apartments on their parents' dimes.
Newly unveiled data revealed that more New York City apartments are being bought by trust fund babies than in previous years.
'Manhattan real estate is quite expensive,' Castle Avenue realtor Wei Min Tan told Daily Mail.com.
'The average home price in the US is about $450,000, but in Manhattan, the average apartment is about $1.8 million.'
With a historically high point of entry to home ownership, New Yorkers with wealthy and established backgrounds are calling upon their rich family for help.
In 2024, 28 percent of Manhattan home sales involved a trust - with most of these transactions being between parents and their adult children, Bloomberg reported.
This jaw-dropping statistic is a stark increase from just three years prior, when the number of trust-involved real estate endeavors was 17 percent.
A trust is a legal arrangement involving a trustor, the grantor, and a trustee, the beneficiary.
DailyMail.com spoke with two NYC realtors, who shared their experiences working with parents buying properties for their children.
Among NYC's most luxurious residential areas is Billionaire's Row - a group of skyscraper apartment buildings near the southern end of Central Park (pictured).
Walker gushed over the apartment she sold to the NYU student's family, saying how it was right near Washington Square Park.
The trustor gives the trustee the right to hold and manage an asset - such as a million-dollar NYC condo.
'In areas like the West Village, there used to only be older people who were wealthy,' Serhant realtor Peter Zaitzeff told Bloomberg.
'Now, it’s all 20-year-olds whose parents bought them a place.'
Douglas Elliman luxury broker Frances Katzen told Bloomberg about 60 percent of her sales last year were parents buying properties for their children.
Of those sales, she observed approximately 40 percent had used a trust.
However, NYC-based realtor Caroline Walker, also from Douglas Elliman, said she primarily sees parents putting up their kids in gorgeous homes without a trust.
'Yes, there is trust and gifting. But in all honesty, I think that really what it is is parents coming in to tour [homes] with their children, and their parents are just buying it and letting their kids live there,' Walker told the DailyMail.com.
Walker said the concept of city dwellers living in parent-funded apartments is nothing new, but the prominence of social media has shed a light on the phenomenon.
Tan sold a stunning $945,000 unit in a newly converted building in Battery Park to a father whose son attends college in lower Manhattan.
Walker recalled selling an over million-dollar Greenwich Village apartment to a college student’s family.
'In New York City, parents have always been buying for children. It's kind of this "if you know, you know" secret that's been happening for a while now,' she explained.
'I'd say over the past even five to 10 years, it's really blown up. And it makes up a huge percent of the market.'
She could not say exactly how large of the market's portion or what percent of her sales were parentally funded, but she said it was a 'decent' number of them.
Walker explained that from a parent's perspective, investing in NYC real estate is a strategic decision.
'The Manhattan market is a safe place to put your money,' she asserted.
In a TikTok Walker shared in November 2024, she discussed how the arrangement generally goes.
Walker said: 'What the parents will sometimes do is pay for the down payment, pay for the principal, and then the kids pay the monthlies, the taxes, et cetera and the interest rate as their rent.'
'Ultimately, everyone wins. The parents get all that money back when they sell the place and then some and make money. And the kids pay way less than they would paying rent and get a way nicer place.'
The average price of an NYC condo ranges from $771,907 for a studio apartment to $10,789,864 for four bedroom apartments, according to Castle Avenue real estate.
Last year, 60 percent of all Manhattan home purchases were all-cash, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.
Walker revealed she recently sold a stunning Greenwich Village apartment for about $1.3 million to the family of a New York University student.
The luxurious building is located less than a block away from Washington Square Park.
Of the children living in NYC homes bought by their parents, many of them are college students.
'It's literally the most perfect location for NYU,' she said.
Her clients were parents from Long Island who were looking for a place for their son to live while he pursues his education and goes on to work in the city.
Although it is an undeniable luxury to have parents carrying the financial burden of students or young people launching their careers in the city, Walker said some people involved in these arrangements are not generationally wealthy.
She recalled a sale of a Midtown apartment for less than $600,000 to a family for their daughter and her boyfriend, who were both working in Manhattan.
Leslie Singer, a NYC luxury real estate broker for Brown Harris Stevens, shared her experience as not only a realtor but as a parent who bought an apartment for her son.
Based on her social media updates, she bought the residence in 2023 but is still renovating it.
'Something I talk about and do for clients all the time - and I understand it's a luxury and it's a privilege and not everyone can do it - but buy for your children,' she explained.
Singer said it allows for the benefitting child to pay the monthly fees while the family makes a profitable investment.
Her son will be paying $1,700 a month once the spacious one-bedroom apartment is finished.
'It's definitely a huge step in terms of helping them,' Tan said, explaining that real estate prices are growing at a faster rate than NYC salaries are.'
Tan said he has sold several units in the newly converted Battery Park building.
Walker made a TikTok explaining the trend and who is participating in it along with its upsides.
Tan said he represents a lot of international clients and estimated that about 20 percent of them go this route—especially if their children are studying in Manhattan.
He referenced a $1.5 million apartment he sold to the family of a Columbia University student.
Tan also sold a stunning $945,000 unit in a newly converted building in Battery Park to a father whose son attends college in lower Manhattan.
The realtor said he has done many deals—not limited to parentally funded ones—in that particular downtown development.
For people who have the means, Tan said it makes more sense to buy a property than for a child to stay in dorm rooms because of property value appreciation.
'So let’s say, if the property price is a million dollars,' he outlined an example.
'If you look at the historical appreciation, which is six percent, it appreciates by $60,000 each year.
'Assuming there’s appreciation, the appreciation would cover the cost of tuition.'
In August 2014, model and reality TV star Yolanda Hadid purchased a $1.94 million condo for her supermodel daughter Gigi while she was studying at NYU.
The Nolita apartment was bought through the Yolanda Hadid Family Trust, according to Business Insider.
In 2016, Gigi reportedly sold the glamorous property for $2.3 million.
While the price may seem eye-popping, it's nothing compared to NYC's most luxurious residential areas: Billionaire's Row, a group of skyscraper apartment buildings near the southern end of Central Park.
These high-end homes typically go for anywhere from $15 million to $30 million, but some of the most expensive options are worth close to $200 million.
A significant portion of homeowners at this exclusive location have bought their properties through trusts.
'The wealthy frequently put their assets into trusts and limited liability companies, which can be useful for estate planning, reducing taxes and maintaining privacy,' Realtor.com explained.
'High-end homes across the country are often purchased through LLCs or trusts rather than in the names of their owners.'
As of 2021, 44 percent of the outrageously priced Billionaires' Row homes are vacant.
The condo purchased by Yolanda Hadid's trust was located at 250 Bowery in Nolita.
Pictured: The rooftop view of Hadid's former apartment.
But these pricey real estate pursuits are just the symptoms of a more than $105 trillion wealth transfer that will occur over the next 25 years, Bloomberg reported.
This generational wealth exchange involves the passing along of baby boomers' funds to members of younger - likely less established - generations.
The most recent inheritance projection from Cerulli is 45 percent higher than a 25-year forecast created just three years ago.
Next year, gifts and inheritances in America are set to reach $2.5 trillion.
'About 80 percent of the wealth held today is going to be in motion,' Chayce Horton, who wrote the Cerulli report, told Bloomberg.'
'The ratio of wealth expected to be changing hands in the next 25 years is significant and much greater than what we even saw a decade ago.'
However, two percent of US households are projected to reap the benefits of more than half of the $105 trillion, meaning the money will remain concentrated among the wealthy.