????不到一年，我們就開始大概知道公園大道432號會是什么樣。首先，我們了解到，建造的公寓數(shù)量將接近100套，而非原計劃的140套。隨后我們獲悉了該建筑的

????銷售工作細節(jié)。值得注意的是，麥克洛地產(chǎn)公司（Macklowe Properties）沒有將

????公園大道432號的公寓放上StreetEasy和住宅掛牌服務(wù)系統(tǒng)（Residential Listing Service, RLS）等大受歡迎的經(jīng)紀人數(shù)據(jù)庫，而是大力吸引俄羅斯寡頭。該公司在莫斯科特維爾大街的麗思卡爾頓酒店（Ritz-Carlton Hotel）設(shè)立了流動銷售辦事處，每天有數(shù)十名億萬富翁穿過該酒店大堂。

????到2013年5月，麥克洛宣布，頂層閣樓已經(jīng)售出，售價高達9500萬美元。半數(shù)公寓已經(jīng)簽約，總銷售額預(yù)計高達30億美元。今年二月，曼哈頓房地產(chǎn)經(jīng)紀商道格拉斯艾麗曼（Douglas Elliman）成為獨家聯(lián)合銷售代理商，幫助銷售剩下的公寓。

????人們普遍認為，盡管所有公寓將全部售罄，但該大樓的入住率將始終保持在25%。請記住，這些臨時住所每套起價700萬美元，還有幾套公寓占據(jù)了一整層，售價高達約7500萬美元。這是全球億萬富豪階層大大擴充的絕佳例證。中東石油巨頭、中國億萬富翁、俄羅斯寡頭，以及拉丁美洲貴族，都有一個共同點：錢多得不知道該怎么花，而且都拼命將錢轉(zhuǎn)移到海外。紐約房產(chǎn)既可以幫助他們實現(xiàn)上述愿望，又能作為儲值手段。

????截至筆者撰稿時，曼哈頓及其周邊地區(qū)計劃新增八棟超豪華大樓，相關(guān)項目進展情況不一。全世界超高凈值（UNHW）人群的財富激增，使得這一切成為可能。瑞銀（UBS）和Wealth-X進行的一項新研究顯示，全球有21.1275萬人是資產(chǎn)總額超過3000萬美元的超高凈值人士。該人群控制的財富總額估計僅略低于30萬億美元。2013年以來，超高凈值人士的數(shù)量增加了6％，其資產(chǎn)增長了7％。

????不過，上述數(shù)字掩蓋了超高凈值人群中一個更重要的趨勢：資產(chǎn)超過10億美元的人士（約2325人），財富年增長12％，而處于超高凈值人群底層的9.1萬人，其資產(chǎn)為3000萬至4900萬美元，財富增幅不到7％，相對較小。那些頂級富豪的財富增長速度，為底層富豪的兩倍。今年，資產(chǎn)為7.5億至10億美元的超高凈值人士，人數(shù)增加了20％，超過了1200人?？傊?，越是有錢人，財富增長越快。

????紐約這樣的城市，能建造數(shù)十棟超豪華住宅樓，而且棟棟售罄，原因即在此。僅在紐約，估計有8655名常住居民為超高凈值人士，在全球城市中獨占鰲頭。Wealth-X發(fā)現(xiàn)，超高凈值人士人均擁有2.7套房產(chǎn)，其8％的財富投資于房地產(chǎn)。按理說，隨著其財富的增長，他們將有能力持有并投資于更多的高檔住宅。

????北美第三高樓——公園大道432號的數(shù)十位住戶將于2015年春季開始入住。在可能出現(xiàn)通縮、各國央行處于長期危機模式、大量失業(yè)以及全球99％的人口工資增長停滯的大背景下，公園大道432號的住戶們將開始裝修其富麗堂皇的公寓。

????在我們前幾代，拔地而起的摩天大樓，往往是為“工作”樹立豐碑。與克萊斯勒大廈、世界金融中心、帝國大廈不同的是，公園大道432號是為“擁有”樹立豐碑。

????在中世紀，建塔樓是為了在瘟疫和災(zāi)難時期，將皇室和封建領(lǐng)主與其他人口隔離開來。這是一道有效的屏障，同時具有實際和象征意義。在美國人口最多的城市，建起高達1400英尺的摩天大樓，里面只有不足100人居住，這或許是上述行為在當代的完美再現(xiàn)。公園大道432號如今獨絕天際的身影，是當今世界現(xiàn)狀的最好寫照，其效果勝過一千位托馬斯?皮凱蒂（法國經(jīng)濟學(xué)家，探討貧富差距的暢銷書《二十一世紀資本論》作者——譯注）奮筆疾書。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：Hunter

????審校：李翔

????Within a year, we began to get a sense of what 432 Park Avenue would come to represent. First, we learned that the number of condo units built would be closer to 100 than the originally planned 140. Next came details about the building’s sales efforts. Notably, while Macklowe Properties had kept 432 Park Avenue’s units off of popular broker databases like StreetEasy and the Residential Listing Service (RLS), the firm was going full-throttle in its attempt to court the Russian oligarchy. A kind of traveling sales office was set up at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Moscow’s Tverskaya Street, where dozens of billionaires pass through the lobby each day.

????By May 2013, Macklowe had announced that the top-floor penthouse was already sold for an astonishing $95 million. Half of the building’s apartments were under contract, with projections of $3 billion in total sales. This February, Manhattan realtor Douglas Elliman was brought on as the exclusive co-sales agent to help move the rest of the units.

????It is widely believed that the building will only be one-quarter occupied at all times, even though it will be completely sold out. Keep in mind that these are pied-a-terres that begin at $7 million each and include several full-floor parcels in the $75 million range. More than anything else, this speaks to the insatiable appetite of the world’s greatly expanded billionaire class. Middle Eastern oil magnates, Chinese billionaires, Russian oligarchs, and the Latin American aristocracy all have one thing in common: More money than they know what to do with and a desperation to get as much of it out of their home countries as possible. New York real estate works very well as both a facilitator of this as well as a store of value.

????As of this writing, there are currently plans for eight more ultra-luxe towers in and around Manhattan, in various stages of development. The explosion of wealth among ultra high net worth (UNHW) individuals around the world has made all of this possible. According to a new study from UBS and Wealth-X, there are 211,275 people in the world who could be considered ultra high net worth, with assets totaling north of $30 million. The approximate amount of wealth controlled by this group is estimated at just under $30 trillion. And while the number of UHNW people grew by 6% since 2013, their assets grew by 7%.

????But these figures obscure an even more important trend taking root among the UHNW rankings: People with over a billion dollars in assets (there are 2,325 of them) saw their wealth increase by 12% year over year, while those at the bottom of the group—the 91,000 people with assets between $30 million and $49 million—realized a comparatively smaller 7% bump in wealth. Those at the top of the top are seeing their fortunes grow twice as fast as those at the bottom of the top. And the number of UHNW individuals who fall in the $750 million to $1 billion category saw their ranks swell by 20% this year to over 1,200 people. The bottom line is that the richer you are, the faster you’re getting even richer.

????This explains why a city like New York can build dozens of ultra-luxury residential towers and continue to sell out. In New York alone, it is estimated that there are 8,655 full-time residents who would be categorized as ultra-high net worth, the most of any city in the world. Wealth-X finds that the average UHNW individual owns 2.7 properties and that 8% of their wealth is invested in real estate. Logically speaking, as their wealth grows, so too does their capacity to own and invest in an increasing amount of high-end housing.

????This coming spring, the few dozen occupants of 432 Park Avenue, North America’s third-tallest building, will begin to move in. They will furnish their palatial apartments against a global backdrop of deflationary fears, central banks in perpetual crisis mode, massive unemployment, and stubbornly stagnating wage growth for 99% of the world’s population.

????In previous generations, when towers of this scale were erected, they were monuments to working. 432 Park, unlike the Chrysler Building, the World Financial Center, and the Empire State Building, is a monument to owning.

????In the Medieval era, towers were erected to separate royalty and feudal overlords from the rest of the population during times of plague and suffering. It was an effective barrier, both physical and symbolic. A 1,400-foot skyscraper, in America’s most populous city, in which fewer than 100 people will reside, is perhaps the perfect present-day parallel to such behavior. The ascendance of 432 Park Avenue to its now-dominant place in the skyline says more about the state of our world than a thousand Thomas Pikettys typing on a thousand keyboards ever could.