Some buyers are finding deals on condos in Trump-branded properties that would have been unheard of just before the former president took office four years ago, according to a new report by The Associated Press.
The report highlights the extent to which some buyers have aimed to distance themselves from former President Donald Trump’s business brand after four years of his provocative rhetoric, controversial policies and efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.
The falling prices at Trump-branded buildings outstripped those occurring at some similar properties, the AP found.
The news organization reviewed thousands of transactions at nearly a dozen Trump-branded buildings in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Honolulu. It found that a number of residential units at these properties lost a third of their value on the market — while some lost much more.
Buyers in recent months have seized this opportunity to scoop up luxury units in expensive areas for hundreds of thousands of dollars below their previous market value.
Lane Blue bought a studio earlier this year in a Trump-branded Las Vegas property for two-thirds less than what the last owner paid for it, the AP reported. A Trump supporter, Blue said he expects the price of Trump-branded units to recover as anger over his presidency fades.
“Stuff washes out,” Blue told the AP. “People forget. People move on.”
Other owners wish their buildings would simply rebrand.
“I’d be happy if his name was taken off,” Gary Gabriel, a Trump Palace apartment owner in Manhattan, told the AP. “It’s embarrassing.”
Some other properties in Manhattan, Toronto and Panama took Trump’s name off their buildings years ago, severing their ties to the brand in the first year of his presidency, the AP said.
The report points out Trump’s standing fell further in recent months with some banks, the PGA tournament and New York City, each of which scaled back their ties with his business after the former president was accused of inciting the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol in January.
The AP was unable to determine how much of an effect, if any, these plummeting apartment prices have had on the Trump Organization itself. Trump’s business sold most of the units in these buildings years ago, and its executive vice president, Eric Trump, declined to comment for their story.
