Manhattan's 22 transactions represent just 21% of citywide deal count but 60% of total consideration — $180M across 1.2M ZFA. The market is defined by large-scale assemblages where developers consolidate air rights from multiple adjacent donors to maximize floor area on a single development site. Extell's Lincoln Center cluster alone — four parcels feeding 80 West 67th Street — blended to $368/ZFA across $27.6M in transfers.

Special districts dominate the deal landscape. West Chelsea, SoHo-NoHo (SNX), Midtown (MID), and the Theater Subdistrict each produced transactions where landmark and contextual zoning create durable air rights supply from protected low-rise donors. These are not opportunistic trades — they are structural features of Manhattan's zoning map.

Seven of Manhattan's 22 transactions occurred within designated special districts — SoHo-NoHo (SNX), West Chelsea (WCH), Midtown (MID), Turtle Bay, and Theater Subdistrict. In these zones, low-density landmarks and cultural institutions become permanent suppliers of air rights to adjacent development sites. The West Chelsea High Line corridor and the SNX rezoning's contextual protections have each generated multi-transaction pipelines that show no sign of exhaustion.

The Yorkville transaction — 37,584 ZFA from the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health at $199/ZFA — is a prototype for institution-to-developer transfers: a mission-driven entity monetizing unused development potential to fund capital needs, while a residential developer adds 37K+ ZFA to a prime UES site.

The Bronx generated 33 transactions — the second-highest borough count — yet only $18M in total consideration, reflecting an average transaction size of just $548K. This is a market defined by small, contiguous transfers where developers absorb air rights from adjacent residential donors at prices consistent with outer-borough land economics rather than premium location pricing.

MTH Equities is the clearest signal: the firm participated in at least nine recorded transactions across Tremont, Mount Eden, Fairmont-Claremont Village, and Bedford Park — each at sub-$30 PPZFA. Their strategy appears to be systematic density accumulation across R7-1 and R8-zoned corridors where the gap between as-of-right yield and maximum allowable floor area creates persistent arbitrage.

The majority of Bronx air rights activity is concentrated in R7-1 and R8 zoning districts — mid-density residential classifications that allow 3.44–6.02 FAR but where existing built stock frequently leaves significant unused development potential. These parcels, often occupied by aging two- or three-family homes and walk-up apartment buildings, become natural air rights donors as the gap between their as-built square footage and maximum allowable FAR widens.

The Woodstock deal — 487 East 153rd Street at just $41/ZFA — is representative: a C4-4 commercial corridor parcel with substantial unused air rights transferred to ACHSNY for affordable housing development. Affordability mandates and nonprofit buyers may continue to suppress Bronx PPZFA even as underlying land values firm.

Brooklyn's 40 transactions span 18 neighborhoods and reflect a market with deeply differentiated submarket dynamics. Pricing, measured in PPZFA, ranges from $6 in Gowanus (a distressed assemblage parcel) to $346/ZFA in Gravesend — proof that neighborhood identity alone does not determine air rights value; site specificity, zoning classification, and buyer residual all matter.

Gowanus is the most active submarket with 9 transactions following the 2021 rezoning, but its average PPZFA of $116 masks significant dispersion — from $6 to $184. Downtown Brooklyn's 4 transactions averaged $185/ZFA, reflecting institutional buyers with deep conviction on long-duration development sites. The Park Slope deal at $295/ZFA confirms that premium residential demand bleeds into adjacent air rights pricing.

With 9 transactions, Gowanus is Brooklyn's most active submarket — a direct outcome of the 2021 rezoning unlocking residential density across formerly industrial M1 and M2 districts. Developers have systematically sought to maximize yield on newly upzoned sites through structured multi-parcel assemblages. The Tavros/Charney/Canyon Partners JV assembled five parcels feeding 585 Union Street, blending at $112/ZFA across $2.7M in total transfers — demonstrating that rezoning creates not just demand for air rights but complex, multi-step acquisition strategies to meet it.

Queens produced 11 transactions across 7 neighborhoods, but the data is dominated by two Long Island City deals that together transferred 240K+ ZFA and $25.8M — nearly 57% of all Queens consideration. The Carmel Partners deal at 23-10 43rd Avenue is the single largest air rights transaction in the entire citywide dataset by sale price at $24M, involving 164,770 ZFA from an office building in the Hunters Point LIC Special District.

Outside LIC, Queens is a thin but active market. Astoria has generated 4 transactions across 3 zoning contexts — M3-1 industrial (Wildflower Studios / Steinway Place), R6A residential, and R7X/C2-3 mixed-use — with PPZFA ranging from $51 to $99. Jamaica and Far Rockaway reflect the early-stage rezoning signal: below-market pricing on sites where future upzoning would dramatically alter residual values.

The Long Island City Special District produced two of Queens' three largest transactions. Carmel Partners' acquisition of 164,770 ZFA from 23-10 43rd Avenue — an office building seller — at $145.66/ZFA ($24M) represents the highest single-deal price in the citywide dataset. Simon Baron Development's older LIC transaction (74,986 ZFA at $24/ZFA) reflects a much earlier vintage and underscores how dramatically LIC air rights pricing has appreciated over the dataset window.

The Jamaica Downtown (DJ) and Far Rockaway (DFR) special districts each produced one transaction — both at sub-$65 PPZFA. These are early-market signals: the rezoning-induced demand has not yet translated into competitive pricing for air rights, but the pattern in Gowanus and LIC suggests it will follow if development pipelines remain active.