We Buy Houses & Land in Oakwood, Staten Island

Housing Stock

What Oakwood Is Built From

Oakwood was mostly farmland on its higher ground and a modest ocean resort along the shore until the middle of the 20th century. Suburban building began on the heights and sped up after the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964. Today the neighborhood is middle-class and residential, with one- and two-family houses, some garden apartments, and commercial strips along Hylan Boulevard.

Bay Terrace, formerly known as Whitlock, stayed largely undeveloped until single-family construction started there in the late 1950s. Its name likely describes its gently terraced land, which slopes east toward Lower New York Bay. Oakwood Beach, along the shore, had a mix of modest houses and former summer homes on low, marshy ground, which is why it suffered so badly in Sandy.

Typical Properties We See

• Post-1960s detached one-families with driveways and yards
• Semi-detached and detached two-families and mother-daughter homes
• Garden-apartment buildings in Oakwood and Bay Terrace
• Older frame houses on the original Oakwood Heights streets
• Remaining houses and lots in Oakwood Beach
• Retail and office property on Hylan Boulevard and Amboy Road

Zoning & Coastal Rules

Zoning, Coastal Risk and Lower-Density Rules

Most of Oakwood and Bay Terrace is zoned for low-density one- and two-family housing, with commercial overlays along Hylan Boulevard and Amboy Road. All of Staten Island is a Lower Density Growth Management Area, so new construction must meet higher on-site parking requirements (two spaces for a new one-family, three for a two-family), a 30-foot rear yard, wider side spacing and stricter lot-size minimums. These rules usually decide whether an oversized lot can take a second house.

The East Shore Special Coastal Risk District

After the state buyouts, the city’s Department of City Planning proposed a Special Coastal Risk District for parts of Oakwood Beach, Graham Beach and Ocean Breeze near the buyout areas, which the City Planning Commission approved in 2017. Within it, new development is limited to single-family detached homes, and new buildings and horizontal enlargements generally need a City Planning Commission authorization. Repairs, elevations and rebuilding of Sandy-damaged homes were treated more leniently. If your lot is in or near this district, it changes what a buyer can do, and we check the zoning map before we price.

Flood rules apply across the low parts of Oakwood. Substantial improvements in mapped flood zones generally require bringing a house up to flood-resistant standards, and City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, adopted in December 2024, does not allow ADUs on ground floors or in basements in flood zones. Parts of the South Shore are also in the Special South Richmond Development District, so we confirm whether a given lot near Bay Terrace and Great Kills is affected. Confirm specific plans with an architect or zoning attorney.

Tenants & Regulation

Rentals and Rent Rules in Oakwood

Most Oakwood homes are owner-occupied, but many two-families and mother-daughter houses carry a rental unit, and the garden-apartment buildings are mostly rented. Rent stabilization generally applies only to buildings with six or more units built before 1974, so typical houses here are not stabilized; some older garden-apartment buildings may be, and we check the registration history before we assume either way.

Every tenant still has protections under New York law, including the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act’s notice and eviction rules. We buy with tenants in place, including non-paying tenants and relatives without leases, and take over the tenancies at closing. Owners of larger regulated buildings can read our rent-stabilized building page.

Where We Buy

Where We Buy in Oakwood, Oakwood Beach and Bay Terrace

Oakwood Heights and the Station Area

The higher, inland part of the neighborhood around the Oakwood Heights Staten Island Railway station, Guyon Avenue and Amboy Road is where most of Oakwood’s houses are. It is close to Monsignor Farrell High School and Amundsen Circle, the small park and traffic circle at Amboy Road and Clarke Avenue. We buy detached and semi-detached one- and two-families here, from original-condition houses to recently updated ones.

Hylan Boulevard and Tysens Lane

Hylan Boulevard runs through Oakwood with shopping, offices and restaurants, served by the S78 and S79 buses and express buses to Manhattan. Toward Tysens Lane and the New Dorp border, the housing mixes two-families, garden apartments and detached homes. We buy commercial and residential property on both sides of the boulevard.

Oakwood Beach

Oakwood Beach is the low coastal section near the bay, next to the city’s Oakwood Beach wastewater treatment plant and Great Kills Park. Sandy’s surge devastated it in October 2012, and in 2013 the state offered buyouts. The state bought roughly three hundred homes, demolished them and let the land return to marsh and meadow as a natural storm buffer, with planned Bluebelt and coastal-protection work needing some of that land. Some owners stayed and rebuilt. We buy those houses and private lots, with flood and coastal-district rules built into our price.

Bay Terrace

Bay Terrace centers on the street of the same name and its own Bay Terrace railway station, bordered by Richmondtown to the north, Oakwood to the east, Great Kills to the west and Great Kills Harbor to the south. Its streets slope down toward Great Kills Park, and part of Oceanview Cemetery lies within it. The housing is mostly single-family homes from the late 1950s onward, with some two-families and garden apartments. We buy throughout Bay Terrace, and our Great Kills page covers the harbor side beyond it.

The Richmondtown Edge

On Oakwood’s western side, a string of cemeteries, including Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, and the wooded Riedel Avenue greenbelt land separate the neighborhood from Richmondtown and Historic Richmond Town. Houses near these edges often sit on deeper or irregular lots, and some border protected land. We review those limits before we make an offer.

Inherited Property

Selling an Inherited Home in Oakwood or Bay Terrace

Many Oakwood and Bay Terrace houses were bought new by their first owners, and they are now being inherited by children who have their own homes elsewhere. Often the heirs live in New Jersey, Pennsylvania or farther away and need a sale they can manage from a distance.

Executors, Administrators and the Surrogate’s Court

Estates on Staten Island are handled by the Richmond County Surrogate’s Court at 18 Richmond Terrace in St. George. With a will, the named executor petitions for letters testamentary; without one, a relative usually petitions for letters of administration and serves as administrator. The fiduciary holding letters signs the contract and deed. We can sign a contract while the estate is still in process and close when the paperwork is ready. Some letters are limited or require court permission for a sale, so check with your estate attorney.

• Siblings disagree about whether to sell, rent or keep the house
• Out-of-state heirs need someone to handle access; we can arrange it
• A vacant house is costing taxes, insurance, utilities and upkeep every month
• The house needs a new roof, boiler, windows or kitchen before it would sell retail
• A tenant or relative still lives in one unit of a two-family
• An Oakwood Beach house carries flood insurance and storm-repair questions

Read more in our guide to selling inherited property on Staten Island.

Why Owners Sell

Why Oakwood Owners Sell to Us

• Flood insurance and elevation requirements near Oakwood Beach
• A lot in or near the coastal risk district that retail buyers do not understand
• A two-family tenant who stopped paying
• Deferred repairs on a house that has not been updated in decades
• Open DOB violations or an unpermitted basement unit
• Co-owners, a divorce or a partnership that needs a clean exit
• Retirement or a move off the island on a set timeline

Potential

What a Builder Sees in Oakwood

Inland Oakwood and Bay Terrace are steady residential areas with two railway stations, Hylan Boulevard shopping and Great Kills Park nearby. For a builder, the opportunity is usually renovating a dated house, legalizing or improving a two-family, or replacing a small house on a wide lot where the lower-density rules allow it. In Oakwood Beach, the realistic options are narrower: repair, elevate, or hold land that may have limited building potential. We tell you plainly which category your property is in.

Your Options

Listing, Renovating or Selling Directly

Listing on the Market

An updated Oakwood or Bay Terrace house with clean paperwork usually sells well with a broker, and listing may bring the highest price. Expect commission, showings, a buyer’s inspection and mortgage approval. If your house fits that description, we will tell you so.

Renovating or Building Yourself

Updating a house or building on an oversized lot can add value if you have capital and time. It means permits, contractors and carrying costs, and in flood zones it can trigger elevation requirements.

Selling to Red Hook Development

We buy as-is, with no repairs, no showings and no commission. We respond within one business day, put our offer in writing, and you choose the closing date. Since we take on the work and the risk, our price may be lower than a renovated house would bring on the market. See how selling to us works or what we buy.

How It Works

How an Oakwood Sale Works

• Contact us by phone, email or the form on this page
• We respond within one business day and arrange a visit or access
• We review the lot, zoning, flood and coastal rules, tenants and condition
• You receive a written offer
• Attorneys handle the contract, title and closing
• You choose the closing date, and we take over tenancies at closing

Market Context

Oakwood Between Mid-Island and the South Shore

Oakwood sits where the East Shore meets the South Shore. It is part of our Mid-Island coverage, alongside New Dorp and Richmondtown, while Bay Terrace leads into Great Kills and the South Shore. The Army Corps of Engineers’ South Shore of Staten Island coastal storm project, planned to run from Fort Wadsworth toward Oakwood Beach, has been delayed repeatedly, most recently by a contractor termination in 2026, and its progress matters to every shoreline owner. We do not publish price claims; we make an offer on your property and explain it. See the Staten Island overview for all areas.