We Buy Row Houses, Two-Families & Development Sites in Cypress Hills

Housing Stock

Cypress Hills’ Two-Families, Frame Houses & Row Houses

Cypress Hills sits at the eastern edge of Brooklyn, just south of the ridge that gives it its name and the green spaces of Highland Park and the neighborhood’s historic cemeteries. Much of it developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when elevated rail lines along Fulton Street and Jamaica Avenue made the area accessible to working families. The housing built then still defines the neighborhood: wood-frame houses, attached brick two-families and modest row houses with small front yards.

The blocks closest to Highland Park and the Queens border include some of the most attractive older frame houses in eastern Brooklyn. Farther south, toward Atlantic Avenue and Liberty Avenue, the stock shifts to attached brick homes, small walk-ups and newer infill buildings.

What we see most often

• Attached and semi-attached brick two-families
• Older frame houses with siding and original porches
• Row houses converted to two or three units
• Small walk-ups near Jamaica Avenue and Fulton Street
• Storefront buildings along the commercial corridors

Many of these homes have been in the same family for decades, and many need roofs, boilers, wiring or foundation work.

Zoning

Zoning, the 2016 Rezoning & Development Potential

In 2016 the City adopted the East New York Neighborhood Plan, which rezoned parts of East New York and Cypress Hills, including the Atlantic Avenue corridor. It was the first neighborhood rezoning under the City’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, and it allowed larger mixed-use buildings with required affordable housing along major streets such as Atlantic Avenue. Much of the rest of Cypress Hills, especially its blocks of two-families and frame houses, remains mapped in lower- and medium-density residential districts.

City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, adopted in December 2024, added new tools that matter here, including a Universal Affordability Preference that can allow extra floor area for buildings with permanently affordable units, relaxed parking requirements in many areas, and new options for accessory dwelling units and small infill. For some Cypress Hills lots, those changes increase what can be built.

What we evaluate

• Zoning district and any changes from the 2016 rezoning
• Built versus allowable floor area
• Lot width and depth, corners and wide streets
• Adjacent lots that could form an assemblage
• Any unpermitted units or work that affects the legal use

Zoning is technical. Please have your own attorney or zoning professional confirm anything that matters to your decision.

Regulated Buildings

Rent-Stabilized & 421-a Buildings in Cypress Hills

Rent-stabilized apartments in Cypress Hills are concentrated in older buildings with six or more units, particularly near Jamaica Avenue, Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue. Since the 2019 rent law, owners have had very few ways to raise regulated rents or recover the cost of major repairs. For owners of smaller stabilized buildings, a single boiler or roof replacement can wipe out years of income, which is a common reason they decide to sell.

We buy stabilized and partly stabilized buildings as they are, including those with registration gaps or open HPD matters. Our sell a rent-stabilized building page explains our approach.

Some newer buildings in and around Cypress Hills, particularly those built after the 2016 rezoning, were built with 421-a. That program stopped accepting new projects in 2022 and was succeeded by 485-x in 2024, but existing 421-a buildings remain subject to their benefit schedules and affordability requirements. If you own one and are weighing a sale, see our sell a 421-a building page.

Where We Buy

Cypress Hills Streets & Sub-Areas We Focus On

We buy throughout Cypress Hills, including:

• Highland Park area — Highland Place, Barbey Street, Miller Avenue and the blocks along Jamaica Avenue below the park
• Jamaica Avenue — mixed-use and residential buildings under the J and Z between Crescent Street and the Queens border
• Fulton Street corridor — storefronts and walk-ups near the Cleveland Street, Norwood Avenue and Crescent Street stations
• Central Cypress Hills — Arlington Avenue, Etna Street, Ridgewood Avenue, Hale Avenue and the side streets between them
• Atlantic Avenue — the rezoned corridor of auto uses, mixed-use buildings and development sites
• City Line — Euclid Avenue, Grant Avenue and the blocks along the Queens border near the A and C at Euclid Avenue

Cypress Hills is well served by transit, with the J and Z running elevated along Fulton Street and Jamaica Avenue and the A and C stopping nearby at Euclid Avenue and Grant Avenue. Proximity to those stations matters to tenants and buyers alike.

We also buy in the neighborhoods around Cypress Hills, including East New York to the south and west, Bushwick to the northwest, Brownsville and Ocean Hill.

Why Owners Sell

Why Cypress Hills Owners Sell to a Developer

Most of the Cypress Hills owners we hear from are dealing with one of these situations:

• A parent has passed away and the family inherited a two-family that no one wants to manage
• An older owner wants to move closer to children, to Queens, Long Island or out of state
• A tenant upstairs or downstairs pays well below market or has stopped paying
• The house needs a roof, boiler, wiring or foundation work the owner cannot fund
• There are open DOB or HPD violations, illegal basement or cellar units, or unpaid water charges
• Co-owners or siblings disagree about what to do with the property

These are hard situations for a conventional sale, because lenders and inspectors flag the same problems. As a direct buyer, we can buy through them. To get started, visit our sell your property page or send us the address.

Potential

What Your Cypress Hills Site Could Become

When we look at a Cypress Hills property, we consider what it could become, not just what it is. A two-family on a wide lot might support a larger multifamily building. A garage or auto shop on Atlantic Avenue might be the right site for a mixed-use building with affordable units under the 2016 rezoning and the newer City of Yes rules. A frame house near Highland Park might be restored and legally converted to more units.

• Restoration and legal conversion of older houses
• New two- to multi-family buildings on underbuilt lots
• Mixed-use buildings along Atlantic Avenue and Fulton Street
• Assemblages of adjacent lots
• Accessory dwelling units where newly allowed

We take on the design, approvals, financing and construction. You sell once and move on. To see all the property types we purchase, visit what we buy.

Your Options

Selling to a Developer vs. Listing vs. Building Yourself

Cypress Hills owners generally have three paths.

Listing with a broker

Listing can make sense for a well-maintained, vacant home with clean paperwork. But it also means commissions, open houses, months on the market and buyers whose financing can fall through over violations, illegal units or tenant issues.

Developing it yourself

If you have capital and experience, you could renovate, legalize units or build new. That requires architects, DOB filings, financing and contractors, and it can take a year or more.

Selling to Red Hook Development

Selling to us means one buyer, a written offer, an as-is purchase and a closing date that fits your life. For many Cypress Hills families, especially those handling an estate, that certainty matters most. A tax advisor or attorney can help you compare the outcomes.

How It Works

How Selling Your Cypress Hills Property Works

The process is simple:

• Reach out. Send us the address and anything you know about the property. We respond within one business day.
• Review. We check zoning, tax, violation and rent records, then visit if needed, working around tenants and family.
• Written offer. You receive a clear written offer, typically all-cash and as-is.
• Close on your timeline. Your attorney and ours handle the contract and closing, and we can typically close on your timeline.

You are never under any obligation. If our offer does not work for you, you still come away with a clear sense of how a developer values your property.

Market Context

Cypress Hills: A Neighborhood of Homeowners at Brooklyn’s Edge

Cypress Hills has long been a neighborhood of homeowners and close-knit blocks, home over the years to German, Italian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Bangladeshi and many other communities. Its two-families and frame houses gave generations of working families a foothold in Brooklyn, and many of those houses are still owned by the people who bought them, or by their children.

Today, with the 2016 rezoning reshaping Atlantic Avenue and newer citywide zoning changes in effect, the land under many Cypress Hills homes is worth thinking about carefully. If you own property here and are considering a sale, tell us about it. We will give you an honest view and a clear written offer.

Micro-Neighborhoods

Highland Park & City Line

Cypress Hills runs from a wooded ridge on the Queens border down to the busy corridors near Conduit Boulevard. These two pockets show the range.

Highland Park

The Highland Park section sits on the high ground at the northern edge of Cypress Hills, along Highland Boulevard and the park of the same name, which straddles the Brooklyn–Queens border and wraps around the decommissioned Ridgewood Reservoir. The blocks just below the park, on Highland Boulevard, Highland Place, Arlington Avenue, Ridgewood Avenue and the cross streets toward Jamaica Avenue, hold some of the most interesting houses in East Brooklyn: freestanding late-19th and early-20th-century frame homes, brick two-families, and a scattering of larger Victorians with porches and deep yards. The J train along Jamaica Avenue, with stops like Cleveland Street, Norwood Avenue, Crescent Street and Cypress Hills, keeps the area connected.

Many of these houses have been in one family for generations, and we often hear from heirs dealing with a dated, oversized house that needs a roof, a boiler, or a full renovation. We buy them as-is and close on your timeline. Wider lots can carry added value under current zoning and the 2024 City of Yes changes, but confirm specifics with a zoning professional before relying on them. See how our process works.

City Line

City Line is the southeastern corner of Cypress Hills, named for its position on the old border between the City of Brooklyn and Queens County. It is generally described as running from Atlantic Avenue south to Conduit Boulevard, between Euclid Avenue and the Queens line, with Liberty Avenue as its commercial spine and the A and C at Euclid Avenue and the A at Grant Avenue. The housing is mostly low-rise: attached brick houses, two-families and small prewar apartment buildings, with some older frame homes on streets like Lincoln and Belmont Avenues.

The neighborhood is home to Guyanese, Trinidadian, Bangladeshi, West African and other immigrant families, many of whom own two- and three-family houses with tenants. We buy those houses, small walk-ups and mixed-use buildings on Liberty and Pitkin Avenues all-cash, tenants in place, and we can work around estates and family timelines. If your building is regulated, read our rent-stabilized seller guide, and see nearby East New York.