Foreign companies buy into New York residential market for employees

For foreign companies in New York, it is a huge cost of doing business: Employees move to the city or come here on assignment, and the company provides temporary corporate housing whose cost routinely exceeds $4,000 a month.

But more and more foreign companies are buying high-end Manhattan condominium apartments and taking on the role of landlord themselves, brokers say. The companies, many from Europe and Asia, say the strategy makes perfect sense because of the booming Manhattan real estate market and the favorable exchange rate.