Gagan Vaseer isn’t in the habit of staying put. Since leaving his hometown of Durham, N.C., Mr. Vaseer, 34, has taught English in rural China, worked for Google in Mountain View, Calif., earned a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard, interned for UNICEF in Switzerland, and worked in management consulting in Washington, D.C.
After a job opportunity with the United Nations brought him to New York in 2021, he figured it was time to slow things down — at least temporarily. “I’m a fairly chaotic person. I move fairly quickly. New York works for my vibe a lot,” Mr. Vaseer said.
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He settled into a one-bedroom rental in Hell’s Kitchen, the West Side neighborhood teeming with restaurants and nightlife. But a string of rent increases — not to mention noise from roving bachelorette parties and a club across the street — began to take its toll. “I got used to it, but no one should get used to sirens and screams,” he said.
Last fall, when he found his lease renewal slipped beneath the door, Mr. Vaseer logged onto Zillow, determined to find what he wanted in a home of his own. The list included enough room to host friends and the ability to bike or walk to his office at the U.N. headquarters on the East Side. Crucially, he also wanted the option to sublet the apartment, should life throw a new opportunity his way.
Starting with a budget of around $500,000, he contacted Jack Miller, an associate broker at R New York. “We pretty much immediately started looking exclusively on the East Side, where pricing is better because there’s more inventory,” Mr. Miller said. “There’s definitely deals to be had.”
They’d be looking at both condos and co-ops with flexible subletting policies. But to keep condos in the mix, Mr. Miller told Mr. Vaseer that he needed to raise his budget. “Because the inventory for condos is so limited, it would be next to impossible to find something the client likes for $500,000,” explained Mr. Miller. “You want to be closer to $700,000 or $800,000 if you’re looking for a condo — at the low end.”
Mr. Vaseer’s parents agreed to chip in for a down payment and join the mortgage. Then he spent the next few months visiting around 25 apartments. “We go full in,” he said.
About 15 blocks south in Kips Bay, this bright, south-facing one-bedroom was on the top floor of a five-story prewar co-op. It had about 600 square feet and an airy layout, with a foyer that led to an open kitchen, French doors, a large living room, and a bedroom overlooking the building’s shared gardens. Mr. Vaseer could sublet the place after three years, pending co-op board approval, for periods of up to two years. He wasn’t thrilled about a plan to convert a lot behind the building into a pickleball court, but he liked the proximity to the subway, Trader Joe’s and his gym. The asking price was $499,000, with about $1,560 a month in maintenance, including taxes.
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