If you didn’t know better, you would probably swear that the condos available at the W New York Downtown Tower are already occupied. Designer furniture, wide-screen HDTVs, Warhol Prints, mid-century antiques, animal-skin throw rugs: The luxury condos at the W Tower feature detailed furnishings that make them feel like homes in the fullest sense of the word. The idea of a turnkey apartment is fairly commonplace for luxury rentals, but the W Tower - located at 123 Washington Street a block away from the One World Trade Center construction site in the Financial District - is taking the idea of fully-furnished condos to a whole new level. This innovation is yet another sign of the times; developers need a marketing edge more than ever. The people keeping Manhattan’s sluggish condo sales market afloat are usually either wealthy internationals looking for a pied-a-terre or buyers looking to become one-off landlords by renting their Manhattan properties, and the turnkey condos at W Tower cater specifically to both these groups. So far it seems to be working. After losing buyers in droves after the financial collapse in 2008, this new marketing technique is stimulating sales at W Tower for the first time in years.

Judging by the amount of qualified buyers turned away by condo boards in 2011, it might be time to stop thinking of them as less stringent than their co-op counterparts. When it comes to purchasing a luxury apartment, the two are increasingly similar, and the experience of buyers and brokers last year attests to that. More people were turned down than ever, although not in the way that you might think; condo boards don't really reject people, they just use stall-tactics until buyers give up. Condo boards do this because the only way they can formally reject buyers is to buy the condo themselves - not exactly the most desirable option - so much to the consternation of well-qualified buyers, run-around tactics have emerged as the next best thing. While some of these tactics border on the absurd, savvy buyers of Manhattan luxury condos should come prepared to meet all the potential hurdles, no matter how unnecessary they may seem. In order to be prepared, here is an outline of the standards of many condo boards have changed.

What’s the difference between a luxury condo and luxury rental in Manhattan? These days, barely anything. The average size of a 1-bedroom luxury rental in Manhattan is 600-675 square feet, while the average size of a 1-bedroom luxury condo in Manhattan is 700-800 square feet. The units in 8 Spruce Street in FiDi and Silver Towers in Midtown West are newly constructed luxury rentals that are indistinguishable from newly constructed luxury condos and subsequently attract wealthy buyers who would’ve only considered condos before; Silver Towers in particular was originally going to be a luxury condominium. This trend is no accident; the uncertain economy has made developers antsy about the future, leading them to adopt the strategy of designing luxury buildings in Manhattan that could convert easily from rentals to condos or vice versa. Consequently, these newly constructed luxury buildings have made the distinction between the two thinner than ever.

When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in the fall of 2008, perhaps no neighborhood was more greatly affected than Harlem. The ill-timed flurry of construction in Harlem that preceded Lehman’s collapse left about a dozen new developments stranded, so to speak. In other words,  those new luxury condominiums either on the market or about to be on the market at that time suddenly had no buyers and a bleak future. So, almost overnight, the new construction revival in Harlem created a glut of luxury condos that no one wanted to live in. This unfortunate turn of events had defined Harlem real estate for the past few years, but it looks like the damage wrought by those events has finally abated: in the third quarter of this year 150 condos sold in Harlem, marking the fifth quarter in a row where condo sales in Harlem exceeded 100 units. Despite the odds, sales of new luxury condos now exceed pre-Lehman levels. Granted, this is due to greatly reduced inventory and an extreme shortage of quality inventory elsewhere in Manhattan, but this recovery is still impressive, and it spells good news the Manhattan luxury real estate market as a whole.

With a dearth of new construction, developers in Manhattan have shifted their tactics. 2011 has been the year of the condo conversion, and this wave of conversions seems likely to continue as long as financing for large projects remains difficult. In lieu of working with banks to loan them the large amounts of money required for new condo construction, developers are electing to simply convert rental buildings or office spaces instead. So far the tactic is working, although this strategy is heavily dependent upon the continuation of a healthy New York real estate market. If global financial insecurity or the recent woes of Wall Street begin to turn the current seller’s market into a buyer’s market, these converted condos might prove to be unwise investments.