Amenity-stuffed new condo apartments in this California city are being discounted by up to 25% as developers struggle to sell them

High end condo apartments in San Francisco are being discounted by up to 25 percent as developers struggle to sell them.

Despite their top of the range amenities and luxury finishes, studios once listed for $500,000 are currently being sold for closer to $350,000.

An exodus from the downtown area partly due to soaring crime, along with sky high mortgage interest rates, has seen prices slashed across the board.

'Sellers might not have the room or motivation to budge on their price,' real estate agent Kaufman told SF Standard. 'But a developer does. They want the building to sell out as quickly as possible so they can get out.' 

At the 242 unit Serif building, developers Group I are advertising heavy discounts on their properties.

High end condo apartments in San Francisco, such as those offered at the Serif (pictured) are being discounted by up to 25 percent as developers struggle to sell them

Despite their top of the range amenities and luxury finishes, studios once listed for $500,000 are currently being sold for closer to $350,000

An exodus from the downtown area partly due to soaring crime, along with sky high mortgage interest rates, has seen prices slashed across the board. Pictured: a homeless encampment in the city in April 2024

The gleaming, studio to two-bedroom residences boast access to a roof deck, gym, parking and even a pet spa.

Initially marketed from $500,000, a 339 square foot studio is currently being sold for $360,000.

Meanwhile, a two bedroom, two bathroom home is available for $950,000, $50,000 less than the median price for a San Francisco condo according to data from Compass.

But despite the savings, four years on from opening the building remains just 50 percent occupied.

The statistics are surprising given the chronic shortage of affordable homes in San Francisco.

But given that the project was initially conceived to cater to the influx of tech workers, an unprecedented office vacancy crisis in the area has hampered sales. 

The Bay Area is the global capital of the technology industry, many of whose workers continue to work from home - leaving offices in downtown San Francisco empty and making nearby condo complexes less appealing than they once might have been.  

As of March this year, almost a third of offices in the Golden Gate city were lying empty according to official data.

Governor Gavin Newsom previously chalked this up to 'macroeconomic' forces lingering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the 242 unit Serif building, developers Group I are advertising heavy discounts on their properties

The gleaming, studio to two-bedroom residences boast access to a roof deck, gym, parking and even a pet spa

However, critics have also pointed to a mass exodus of several retailers amid untenable levels of crime.

Recently, Lloyd Chapman of the American Small Business League visited the city's once-thriving Union Square area at the heart of its retail district and filmed the hollowed out scene.

The prime real estate was once home to outlets including Uniqlo, H&M, Rasputin Records, and Lush, but all have disappeared amid the crime, drugs and homelessness crisis.

The entire Union Square district now has a record vacancy rate of 20.6 per cent, helping drive the city's overall retail vacancy rate to a new high of 7.9 percent according to a survey last month by Cushman and Wakefield.

While crime in San Francisco fell in the first quarter of the year, it still remains much higher than the state average.

When it first opened in 2021, another luxury complex at 588 Minna Street was plagued by negative reviews due to its proximity to the corner of 7th and Market Street.

The stretch was branded the 'most troubled corner' of San Francisco and was the site of 20 percent of the city's drug crime last year.

The complex, known as OneEleven, is home to 39 units of which at least half are currently unoccupied.

The 39 unit OneEleven complex is half empty and was besieged by negative reviews due to its proximity to one of San Francisco's most notoriously dangerous streets

The corner of 7th and Market Street (pictured) was branded the 'most troubled corner' of San Francisco and was the site of 20 percent of the city's drug crime in 2023

One seller who purchased a one bedroom property for $475,000 in 2023 snapped up the unit for almost nine percent less than it was initially listed for, according to data from Zillow.

But just a year later the same property is back on the market for the price it was purchased at. 

In recent months the building's fortunes have improved however thanks to a spate of new hotel openings in the vicinity.

There are hopes of a resurgence for the downtown area however as investors look to snap up vacant properties at bargain prices.

Real estate investor Cyrus Sanandaji, the founder of Presidio Bay Ventures, is convinced the area is ready to rise again.

He put $41 million of his company's money up to buy an office building at 60 Spear Street, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The seller, Clarion Partners, paid $107 million for it back in 2014.

Just a month ago, another firm, SKS Investments purchased 350 California St. for 75 percent less than the seller had wanted for it in 2020.