We Buy Two-Family Homes, Attached Houses & Lots in Canarsie

Housing Stock

Canarsie Housing: Brick Two-Families, Attached Homes and Waterfront Blocks

Canarsie occupies a large stretch of southeast Brooklyn along Jamaica Bay, bounded roughly by Paerdegat Basin to the west, the Fresh Creek area to the east and the Belt Parkway and the bay to the south. Once a fishing village and later a resort and industrial edge of the borough, it was built out heavily in the decades after World War II, much of it with modern brick homes.

The most common Canarsie property is the brick two-family house, often with a garage and driveway at street level and living space above. Attached and semi-attached homes line many blocks, and detached homes and older frame houses appear throughout, especially on blocks that predate the postwar building wave. Along the main corridors you will also find small apartment buildings and mixed-use buildings with stores below.

Because so much of the housing is two-family, Canarsie is a neighborhood of owner-occupants and small landlords. Many homes have been in the same family for decades, and many have basement or lower-level units whose legal status varies. We evaluate each property on its own records, rents and condition.

Zoning & Development

Zoning and Development Potential in Canarsie

Most of Canarsie is mapped with low-density residential districts designed for one- and two-family homes, with limits on floor area, height and unit count. Somewhat higher-density districts and commercial overlays appear along corridors like Rockaway Parkway, Avenue L and Flatlands Avenue, where ground-floor retail with apartments above is permitted.

The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity amendments, adopted in December 2024, matter in Canarsie. They allow accessory dwelling units on many one- and two-family lots, relax parking requirements, permit modest mixed-use buildings along low-density commercial corridors, and create transit-oriented rules that can allow small apartment buildings on qualifying lots near stations, such as the L train terminal at Rockaway Parkway. Flood-zone rules limit some of these options near the water, so every lot needs its own analysis.

The practical result: an oversized lot, a corner, a teardown or a property near the L train may have more potential than its current use suggests. We review zoning, lot dimensions, existing floor area and flood mapping before we make an offer, so our number reflects that potential. See what we buy for the full list of properties we acquire.

Rent-Regulated Buildings

Rent-Stabilized and 421-a Buildings in Canarsie

While two-family houses dominate, Canarsie has a meaningful number of small apartment buildings and mixed-use properties. Buildings with six or more units built before 1974 are often rent-stabilized, and owners of these buildings face rising operating costs, strict rules on rent increases and frequent HPD inspections. We buy rent-stabilized buildings as they are, with tenants in place, including properties with vacancies, arrears, unregistered units or open violations. Learn more on our sell a rent-stabilized building page.

Some newer Canarsie buildings were developed with a 421-a tax exemption and carry ongoing affordability and registration requirements. The 421-a program closed to new projects in 2022 and was succeeded by 485-x in 2024, while existing 421-a buildings continue under their original terms. We review those obligations and buy with them in place; see sell a 421-a building.

Because regulatory status drives value, we ask for the rent roll, registrations and any agency correspondence early. For legal or tax questions, consult your attorney or tax advisor.

Flood Zones

Flood Zones, Sandy and the Canarsie Waterfront

Canarsie’s southern blocks sit low along Jamaica Bay, Paerdegat Basin and Fresh Creek. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, storm surge flooded streets and basements in the lower parts of the neighborhood, and many homeowners went through long repair processes, some through the city’s Build It Back program.

Portions of Canarsie lie within FEMA’s mapped flood hazard areas. That can mean higher flood insurance costs for buyers with mortgages, flood-resistant construction requirements for substantial renovations and restrictions on below-grade living space. These issues often surface late in a retail sale through appraisals or insurance quotes.

We check flood status and history before we make an offer and price it in from the start. If you have an elevation certificate, repair records or grant paperwork, sharing them helps us give a sharper number. Your attorney can advise on any obligations tied to past recovery funding.

Where We Buy

Streets and Sub-Areas We Focus On in Canarsie

We buy throughout Canarsie, including:

• Blocks around Rockaway Parkway and the Canarsie–Rockaway Parkway L train station
• Mixed-use and residential properties along Avenue L and Flatlands Avenue
• Blocks between Remsen Avenue and Avenue J in the northern part of the neighborhood
• Homes near Seaview Avenue and Canarsie Park
• Waterfront-adjacent blocks near Canarsie Pier, Paerdegat Basin and Fresh Creek

Canarsie is anchored by the L train terminal and by bus routes along its main avenues, with the Belt Parkway along the south.

Our buying area extends into every neighbor. Across Paerdegat Basin is Bergen Beach, and beyond it Mill Basin. To the north and west are Flatlands and East Flatbush, and to the northeast Brownsville and East New York.

Why Owners Sell

Why Canarsie Owners Sell to Us

We hear many of the same reasons from Canarsie owners:

• Settling an estate where heirs live elsewhere or disagree about keeping the house
• A two-family or small building with tenants the owner no longer wants to manage
• Tenants behind on rent, or occupants who are difficult to remove
• HPD or DOB violations, open permits or an illegal basement unit
• Roof, boiler, plumbing or façade work that the owner cannot fund
• Storm damage that was never fully repaired
• Financial pressure, including tax or water and sewer charges owners want resolved at closing

Red Hook Development offers one buyer, no repairs, no showings and a firm written offer. The process is confidential. If you are facing foreclosure, tax liens or a court deadline, talk with your attorney right away; we can work with your attorney on timing, and outstanding liens are typically paid off from sale proceeds at closing.

Your Options

Selling Direct vs. Listing vs. Fixing It Up

Canarsie owners usually compare three paths.

List with a broker

A renovated, legal two-family with paying tenants can sell well on the open market. Buyers using mortgages, though, face appraisals, inspections and lender scrutiny of the certificate of occupancy, tenancies and flood insurance, and deals can fall apart late.

Renovate first

Updating units and curing violations may raise value and rents, but it requires capital, contractors, permits and patience, and occupied units make renovation harder.

Sell to Red Hook Development

We buy as-is, typically all-cash, without financing contingencies. We take on violations, tenancies and renovation after closing. You trade some potential upside for speed and certainty, and we will be candid about how our offer compares. Start at sell your property.

How It Works

How Selling Your Canarsie Property Works

Our process is simple and transparent.

• Contact us with the address and a few details. We respond within one business day.
• We review the property, records, rents, zoning, flood status and condition, usually with a short visit.
• You receive a written offer, typically all-cash and as-is, with our assumptions in plain language.
• Your attorney reviews the contract, and we can typically close on your timeline through a standard title and closing process.

There is no listing commission and no need to repair, clean out or vacate the property. We never ask you to sign over a deed outside of a proper closing, and we encourage every seller to have independent legal representation. If our offer is not right for you, there is no obligation.

Micro-Neighborhoods

Paerdegat Basin

Canarsie’s western edge runs along a long tidal inlet, and the residential blocks beside it are often called by the inlet’s name.

Paerdegat Basin

Paerdegat Basin is the 1.25-mile channel that runs from near Ralph Avenue and Flatlands Avenue south to Jamaica Bay, separating Canarsie from Bergen Beach and Georgetown. Its name comes from the Dutch for “horse gate.” The basin took its current shape when it was dredged in the late 1920s as part of a never-completed plan to turn Jamaica Bay into a port, and the land around it was developed mostly in the 1950s and 1960s. Today the shoreline is Paerdegat Basin Park, which includes a five-acre ecology park, and the Paerdegat Basin combined sewer overflow facility, completed in 2011, was built to cut down on stormwater pollution in the channel. The Belt Parkway crosses near its mouth, and boat clubs and marinas line the lower basin.

On the Canarsie side, the blocks along the basin’s eastern shore, including Paerdegat Avenue North and the short Paerdegat 1st through 15th Streets, are filled with attached and semi-detached brick one- and two-family homes, many with driveways and rear yards, plus some small garden apartment buildings. Many were bought by their first owners in the postwar years and have now passed to the next generation. We buy Paerdegat Basin homes all-cash and as-is, including inherited houses, homes with tenants in a second unit, properties with illegal basement apartments or open violations, and homes with flood or water issues near the shoreline. Confirm flood zone details with a professional. Owners across the water can see our Bergen Beach page, and owners to the north our Flatlands page.