In 2015 after a few boom years buyers had been consistently bidding an average of $685 per square foot for Manhattan land.

Then from 2015 to 2016 the total dollar volume for development site trades in Manhattan below 96th Street plummeted 55 percent to $2.6 billion from $5.8 billion. In 2017, the dollar volume dropped by another 34 percent, according to data provided by commercial brokerage Ariel Property Advisors.

Although land sale prices did recover last year and are now roughly back to 2015 levels, the number of transactions is still significantly down.

In 2015, 125 land parcels traded in Manhattan below 96th Street. In 2018, that figure stood at 59. That’s a 53 percent drop.

Citywide — or at least in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx — the picture is slightly better, but not by much.

In addition to high land prices and a soft condo market, developers have pulled back on buying land for myriad other reasons, including rising interest rates, the loss of 421a tax abatements, a LIBOR rate that has skyrocketed in the last three years and increasing construction costs.

This pause in land sales is actually a good thing for the market, giving it time to absorb the oversupply of condo inventory.

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