FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Navigating the registry.
WHY ISN’T MY MANHATTAN ADDRESS APPEARING?
Your property is in the registry, but it has been indexed under the formal tax lot address. Please scroll to and click on your property—the matching air rights data will appear.
This can happen because the registry’s search function is based on addresses provided by the New York City Department of City Planning. Sometimes the address formally associated with your tax lot differs from that used in practice. While we continue to add alternative addresses to improve search, selecting your tax lot directly will always return the most accurate zoning and air rights information.
CAN I CROSS-CHECK THESE ESTIMATES?
Yes! Although it is our understanding that AREA is the only database that provides an-up-to-date air rights registry, especially with valuations, there are other tools we recommend for cross-checking your air rights:
- The New York City Department of City Planning’s MapPLUTO database: This is where we source our data. Although it is can be difficult to interpret, this is the most authoritative source of New York City air rights data we can recommend.
- The Municipal Art Society of New York’s Accidental Skyline map: Although this map is only current through April of 2023, the associated methodology informed AREA’s own calculations. This is part of MAS’ broader Accidental Skyline initiative, which is also very instructive on air rights.
- When comparing estimates, it is important to note that MAS defines air rights more narrowly than AREA: MAS only measures residential and commercial square footage, whereas AREA measures all air rights.
- Professor Chris Whong’s zoning lot merger methodology: To our knowledge, this is the only published approach for constructing a record of past zoning lot mergers in NYC. This method informs how AREA is currently approaching past zoning lot mergers.
- PropertyShark’s air rights map: PropertyShark offers a paid map of New York City air rights.
- PropertyScout’s air rights estimates: PropertyScout offers paid estimates of unused air rights, targeted toward commercial development.
- Matthew Jones’ Finance of the Fallow Firmament: This 2015 MIT article is one of few pieces of academic research AREA has found estimating prices for Manhattan air rights at large, apart from our own empirical work.
- Professor Sina Shahab et al.’s An Analysis of the Factors Influencing Transaction Costs in Transferable Development Rights Programmes: This article does not directly estimate air rights prices, but is informative in quantifying the high transaction costs in air rights transfers, which AREA exists to address.
ARE THESE ESTIMATES ACCURATE?
We frequently revise our registry to incorporate the newest academic methods for air rights measurement, including our own empirical research. With this said, our registry is based primarily on publicly available data, which can contain errors. We highly recommend reading our methodology to understand the limitations of our estimates.
We are intentional in erring on the side of underestimation, so the estimates you see here should not overpromise what is available on a lot. An important exception is that our registry does not yet reflect previous air rights transfers, so it is important to know the history of your lot.
If you recognize an error in our data set or find new methods for air rights measurement, we would be very grateful if you let us know.