Taxes are always a certainty. But some New Yorkers get a heftier bill than others.
The former emir of Qatar got New York’s biggest property tax bill for 2024-2025 at more than $984,000, according to newly released data from PropertyShark. Other names atop the list include private equity and hedge fund bigwigs Ken Griffin, Steve Cohen, Bill Ackman and Stephen Feinberg. All the properties on the list were bought through LLCs or other shell companies.
For its ranking, PropertyShark analyzed all city property taxes for single family homes and condos, which are assessed a year ahead, for the period of July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. Co-op taxes are levied for the entire building and so were excluded. Homes assessed at more than $250,000 pay property taxes to New York City twice a year. Researchers sourced tax data from the city Department of Finance.
Eliza Theiss, author of the PropertyShark report, noted that many of the property tax bills were the equivalent of the cost to buy a home in some neighborhoods.
“Some of the property taxes could cover the median sales price of the Financial District or the more expensive neighborhoods in Brooklyn or Queens,” she said.
Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani’s two combined mansions on East 72nd Street together form the city’s largest private residence at 42,380 square feet. The former emir paid $25.5 million for the compound in 2003.
Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin received the second-highest property tax bill in the city, forking over $860,055 for his penthouse on Central Park South. He paid $238 million for the 16-bedroom quadplex in 2019. Griffin is the founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel and has an estimated net worth of $43 billion, according to Forbes.
Many of the top tax bills went to foreign dignitaries and opaque companies. But several American finance moguls also got big levies.
Though most billionaires can be found uptown, Steven Cohen has been part of a trend of hedge fund managers moving to the West Village. The executive and owner of the New York Mets baseball team bought his mansion on Perry Street for $38.8 million in 2012 before replacing the duplex with a 4-story construction in 2017. He was billed $613,376 in taxes on the property. He is worth an estimated $21.3 billion, according to Forbes.
Hedge fund executive Bill Ackman’s Central Park South penthouse was one of the city’s most expensive sales ever when he bought it for $91.5 million in 2015. He was levied $477,311 in taxes for the 13,554-square-foot duplex. Ackman is worth $9.1 billion, according to Forbes.
Rounding out the list is U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg and his wife, Gisela. The pair were assessed $449,264 in taxes for their East 67th Street mansion for 2024-2025. The founder and former executive of private equity fund Cerebus Capital is worth an estimated $5 billion, according to Forbes. The couple bought the 16,235-square-foot mansion for nearly $19.8 million in 2003. Before the Feinbergs, the building was used as the Egyptian mission. PropertyShark estimates the couple put in $15 million in renovations.
Founded in 2003, PropertyShark offers real estate data and research tools. It is owned by Yardi Systems and is based in New York.
