But they do not need to wait for that property to hit the market. Manhattan brokers currently have more than 80 'trophy' residences - those listed at prices of $10m or more - available to clients. 'There's more for sale than there ever used to be,' said Scott Durkin, chief operating officer of the Corcoran Group.

Sellers are taking advantage of property values that are still about 26 per cent higher than just three years ago, while buyers are betting that there is even more upside to New York real estate investments, he said.

'People really don't blink any more when a townhouse goes on the market for more than $10m,' he said. Following the stock market downturn, he added, 'the high-net-worth are looking for some place to put their money and there's no better place than a home that you're able to live in as it appreciates'.

September 11 scared some Manhattanites away from the city, but it prompted others to dig in their heels and reminded outsiders why they love New York, he added. Last year, 19 per cent of Corcoran Group buyers came from other areas. This year, non-New Yorkers account for 29 per cent of sales.

Manhattan's most desirable residences are concentrated on 5th and Park Avenues on the east side of the island, on Central Park South and West, and in pockets of Tribeca.

The most expensive properties on the market today, according to Mr Durkin, are the penthouses at the AOL-Time Warner Center, a mixed-used development under construction at Columbus Circle.

The centre's two residential towers, which include 191 condominiums priced between $1.7m and about $40m, are 40 per cent sold. Three blocks away, at the Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, six of 11 residences that adjoin the hotel have been sold at prices between $22.5m to $28m. And, on the east side of Manhattan near the United Nations complex, the newly constructed Trump World Tower has several $10m-plus units available on its top floors.

Buyers are excited by the idea of owning a new apartment - complete with luxury services - in an old city, said Matthew Hall of Millennium Partners, the developer of the Ritz-Carlton residences.

But buyers are gravitating to older homes, too, particularly townhouses. 'There's a premium now for privacy and your own plot of land,' Mr Durkin said.

From 1998 to 2001, only nine Manhattan townhouses worth more than $10m changed hands, according to the Real Estate Board of New York. So far this year, there have been six sales in that price range. There are many more on the market, but townhouses often take longer to sell than other 'super-priced' properties because of each buildings 'idiosyncrasies', Mr Durkin said.

'The biggest questions are: where is it located, and how wide is it?' Mr Durkin said. A house with a 25-foot width is worth $10m to $15m more than a house with a 20-foot width, he said. Still, 'the smallest thing can make a buyer not want .'

Competition among sellers of both new and old luxury residences has prompted more innovative marketing techniques than price reductions.

For example, interior decorator Alexandra Champalimaud and her husband, Bruce Schnitzer, recently hired a public relations firm to throw a summer cocktail party celebrating an Upper East Side townhouse that she remodelled and is now selling for $12.5m.

The two, who purchased the seven-story building in 1995, planning to live in it, are also playing up its history, naming it 'Otto' after former owner Otto Preminger, the film director.

Financial Times