The 10 People Who Bought The Most Property In 2012

One key to being a New York City real estate whale is to own multiple pieces of property?how can someone be a high roller if they own just one paltry pad in the city? As such, we asked our friends over at Property Shark to dig through the records and find out who bought the most Manhattan real estate last year. They may not have been the biggest spenders, but for the 10 buyers below, purchasing one million dollar apartment just wasn't enough.

10) Buyer(s): Michael and Camila Steiner
Number of purchases: 2
Amount spent: $5,689,911.05
The skinny: This couple picked up a pair of apartments on the 14th floor of the ever-popular 1212 Fifth Avenue, one of which is a two bedroom that they put up for rent last summer. True whales would have combined the units without hesitation.

9) Buyer(s): Warren Hammerschlag and Sharon Kessler
Number of purchases: 2
Amount spent: $6.1 million
The skinny: Last April, this couple bought two apartments at the prewar Upper West Side condo 190 Riverside Drive. 7C is 1,160-square-feet and 7D is 1,388-square-feet?think they combined them for a whopping 2,550-square-foot home.

8) Buyer: Philip Munger
Number of purchases: 2
Amount spent: $6.9 million
The skinny: Mr. Munger bought two apartments at the co-op 40 Fifth Avenue, which brings his total in the building to three. He has owned unit 11C since 1996, and last August, he pick up 6A and 1A, which is totally a whale apartment because the listing photos show a zebra rug.

7) Buyer(s): Fahd Mumtaz and Kiran Vairale-Mumtaz
Number of purchases: 2
Amount spent: $6,973,650
The skinny: In August, this couple bought a 860-square-foot 1BR/1.5BA at the new condo Reade57, and they liked the neighborhood so much, they picked up the much larger 3,627-square-foot second floor at 55 Warren Street.

6) Buyer(s): Jeremy and Raquel Palmer
Number of purchases: 2
Amount spent: $7,804,143.75
The skinny: Why buy one when you can buy two? That seems to be the trend here. This couple bought two apartments at hospital-to-condo 130 West 12th Street.

5) Buyer: Lisa Calicchio Jackson
Number of purchases: 2
Amount spent: $9,048,003
The skinny: High-end designer Lisa Calicchio Jackson (whose first Google result is, weirdly, her 1986 wedding announcement in the Times) bought big at the Upper East Side's Glassy Intruder 949 Park Avenue. Last January, she bought the triplex penthouse and a duplex, and she got quite a deal on both?the duplex sold for 21 percent less than its asking price, and the penthouse sold for 27 percent less.

4) Buyer(s): Boris and Natasha Ivanov
Number of purchases: 2
Amount spent: $10 million
The skinny: Who knew that the criminal spies of Rocky and Bullwinkle owned Manahttan real estate? The couple bought two apartments on the 37th and 38th floors in the Olympic Tower last November for $5M a pop. We hope a duplex combo is in the works.

3) Buyer(s): Louis and Janet Levinson
Number of purchases: 3
Amount spent: $1,302,500
The skinny: A bargain! Of the top ten, the Levinsons spent the least amount and bought more than many others. All three are units in the co-op 77 Perry Street. The first purchase was a studio back in January, and the other two were bought in the last quarter of 2012, so perhaps the fiscal cliff influenced the decision?

2) Buyer(s): Jonathan and Brenda Berry Lopatin
Number of purchases: 3
Amount spent: $8,976,000
The skinny: The Lopatins like 186 Riverside Drive so much that they bought three units in the co-op this past August, including not one, but two penthouses. Mr. Lopatin is a former Goldman Sachs man, but he retired in 2000 and now runs a documentary film company focusing on Jewish educational films. Interesting!

1) Buyer(s): Dinesh and Ila Paliwal
Number of purchases: 3
Amount spent: $13,886,500
The skinny: The winners of this semi-contest are Dinesh Paliwall, president and CEO of audio systems giant Harman International, and his wife Ila. The couple bought three apartments at the Plaza. The most expensive of the trio was a 2BR/2.5BA that they got for $8.5M (a 10.5 percent discount!) in July. They bought a big 1,279-square-foot 1BR in November and another 2BR in December. They seem like true whales!
· Property Shark [offiical]

1212 Fifth Avenue

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Olympic Tower

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The Plaza

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