Realtors in New York City have a new strategy to win the high-stakes struggle for supremacy in their battle for sales — drone warfare.
They’re using military-style remote aircraft to take aerial photos at the sites of not-yet-built high-rises to lure potential buyers with images of the stunning views they’d enjoy once their penthouses are completed.
The Realtors don’t even seem to care that such use of drones falls into a shady gray legal area.
“There’s a demand now for people when they’re buying a condominium, they want to see what their views are,” said Robert Singer, director of development for Time Equities, the firm behind 50 West. “I don’t think there’s another way to do it. The technology is incredible.”
50 West’s developers commissioned a drone company called SkyPan to shoot panoramic views of New York Harbor and the city skyline from what will be the upper floors — pictures that would be otherwise impossible to get.
Other realty groups using drones include Halstead Property — which has been using drones for six years — and Alchemy Properties, which handles 35XV, a stylish, 24-story apartment building on West 15th Street, sources said.
Alchemy has used the flying machines to capture the stunning views that residents will get of the Empire State Building once the high-rise is erected.
The realty firm declined to comment, but some neighbors of the future skyscraper did — and they were not happy to learn about the drone cameras.
“If I was on the roof and saw something hovering around, I would be upset. It’s a huge privacy issue,” said Nick Pellegrino, 55, who lives across the street.
“But privacy today doesn’t mean the same thing it meant 10 years ago,” he said.
Despite the aerial real-estate combat, the FAA said it has given no “authorization” for that type of drone use. Now, such aircraft are for hobbyists only.
“To date, we have not authorized any commercial real estate UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] operations,” said FAA spokesman Les Dorr.
Mark Segal, owner of SkyPan, decried the ban, saying the FAA should “rethink its stance and stop trying to enforce its temporary regulations on commercial operators.”
Additional reporting by Jennifer Gould Keil