New York City has never had a consistent, independent way to compare luxury condominium buildings. Buyers have relied on broker opinions, developer marketing, and listing prices to make multimillion-dollar decisions. A new tool from boutique brokerage Undivided aims to change that.
The Undivided Value Index, launching this month, is a scoring framework that rates NYC luxury condo buildings across eight weighted categories. It covers financial fundamentals, building systems quality, amenity return on investment, supply and absorption dynamics, sustainability credentials, appreciation potential, and resale liquidity. Scores are updated quarterly. No developer can pay to influence a rating.
The tool was developed by Mukul “Micky” Lalchandani, founder and managing broker of Undivided, a boutique brokerage that works exclusively with buyers and sellers in the $5 million-plus residential market.
The Idea Behind It
Lalchandani has spent over a decade watching buyers make decisions based on surface-level signals. They fall in love with views, lobbies, and neighborhood names. What they cannot easily see is whether a building’s reserve fund is adequately funded, whether investor unit concentration will suppress future resale demand, or whether monthly carrying costs are on a trajectory that will price out future buyers.
“The market is driven more by perception than measurable value,” Lalchandani says. “We built the Value Index to give buyers something real to work with.”
The framework is weighted, meaning categories are not treated equally. Financial health and liquidity indicators carry more significance than amenity quality or walkability. The logic is straightforward: the index is designed to predict how a future buyer will evaluate the property, not how it looks on a first visit.
How It Works
Each building is scored out of 100. The launch covers four buildings in Manhattan’s Flatiron and Nomad neighborhoods, with scores ranging from 80 to 92. Undivided chose this geographic focus for the initial release because of the depth of transactional data available. Expansion to additional Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods is planned for coming quarters.
Building profiles include a full breakdown of monthly carrying costs, tax abatement status, resale history, appreciation upside, and exit liquidity assessments, alongside the overall score.
Lalchandani draws a comparison to the Michelin Guide: a framework that applies consistent expert methodology across properties, allowing meaningful comparisons that brand reputation alone cannot provide.
Who It Is For
The Value Index is aimed at buyers spending $5 million or more on a NYC condominium, including first-time luxury buyers who lack local market depth, international purchasers navigating an unfamiliar asset class, and experienced investors who want to test a building’s fundamentals before committing capital.
“Someone spending $10 million deserves the same analytical rigor that any serious investment decision gets,” Lalchandani says. “Not a glossy brochure.”
The Undivided Value Index is available now at undividedre.com.
Undivided is a boutique NYC luxury residential brokerage founded by Mukul “Micky” Lalchandani, specializing in modern condominiums and new construction. undividedre.com
