Daily Real Estate News | September 13, 2006

Condo Buyers Can Charge Down Payments
American Express is rolling out a plan to allow condominium buyers to charge down payments.

The plan is currently limited to select luxury-condo buyers in New York. American Express is working in partnership with real-estate firm Moinian Group, which has properties in mid-town under construction. But both companies say that this is just the beginning.

Bill Glenn, American Express's head of merchant business, says the move is part of the company's efforts to expand the ways its clients can use its cards.

The companies didn't disclose the terms of the agreement, although Moinian will pay American Express a fee on each transaction. The condo buyer won't be charged an additional fee. American Express says the program is available across all of its cards.

The move comes at a time when more landlords are allowing tenants to pay their rent with plastic. About 15 percent of the rental apartments in the U.S. accept credit-card payments, estimates Matt Golis, chief executive of YapStone Inc.'s RentPayment, a San Francisco processing firm that works with apartment owners and managers to enable acceptance of credit cards.

Most of its new customers this year are offering to pay the costs incurred by offering credit cards as a payment alternative in order to have a competitive advantage over other properties, he says.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Jane J. Kim (09/13/2006)