A construction worker touches up a patio at Turnberry Towers in February. A representative of Turnberry Place and Turnberry Towers says developer Turnberry Associates tries to discourage speculative buying. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Real estate consultant Jay Beltz has been busy buying and selling about 30 condos in as many months in Mexico, San Diego, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

He bought four units at Panorama Towers, two at Cosmopolitan and one each at Palms Place and Sandhurst. He paid $427,000 for his unit in the first tower at Panorama in November 2003 and resold it through the developer for $649,000 in early 2006 without ever closing escrow on it.

"It was a great investment as I hit the sweet spot of the appreciation cycle," Beltz said. "They sold it in one day."

Local analysts estimate that investors and second-home owners comprise anywhere from 60 percent to 75 percent of the high-rise condo market in Las Vegas, leaving towers at Turnberry Place, Park Towers and SoHo Lofts as dark as caves in a city where lights define the night.

There are 381 high-rise units for resale at a median price of $774,900, or $642 a square foot, John Restrepo of Restrepo Consulting Group reported.

Panorama has more than 80 units for resale on the Multiple Listing Service, about 25 percent of the first tower's inventory, according to Vegasverticals.com, a Web site operated by Las Vegas Realtors specializing in the luxury high-rise market. Prices range from $500,000 for a 753-square-foot unit on the sixth floor to $1.7 million for 2,186 square feet on the 24th floor.

Metropolis has 21 resale listings out of 71 units (30 percent); SoHo has 38 out of 120 units (32 percent); Platinum has 53 out of 255 (21 percent); and MGM Residences has 240 out of 1,728 (14 percent).

"What it tells you is you have a good percentage of investors involved, like me, who bought a few years ago with the intent to flip in a year or two," Beltz said.

Some people worry that investors could create a glut of high-rise resale inventory as they did in the single-family housing market in Las Vegas.

Home Builders Research reported 442 closings in January for mid-rise and high-rise units in Las Vegas. Panorama had the most with 242, followed by Manhattan with 81, Platinum and Turnberry Place with 59 each and SoHo Lofts with one.

Restrepo said there should be sufficient demand to absorb the 6,665 units in 14 projects that have begun vertical construction, plus 13,000 to 16,000 units of the 64,854 units in 122 projects that have broken ground or are proposed through 2012.

"A large percentage of the projects are at best trying to gain their footing and at worse are on life support," Restrepo said, "because of high construction costs, poor management and location, lack of experience, lack of financing or a combination of all of the above."

His market research shows that although Strip views are attractive to out-of-town buyers, Las Vegas lacks the ocean and waterfront views that would make it a prominent high-rise condo market in the same league as Miami, Seattle, San Diego, Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia.

"It's kind of interesting, especially with the competition," Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors President Devin Reiss said of condo resales. "They're competing against themselves. You wonder what kind of restrictions they have for certain time periods before they can resell."

The purchase agreement at Brickwater mid-rise condos says that if a buyer sells within a year of closing, the buyer must pay the developer the difference between the original purchase price and the selling price, minus closing costs, a marketing agent said.

John Riordan, vice president of sales at Turnberry Place and Turnberry Towers, said developer Turnberry Associates discourages speculative buyers by requiring that they first put 30 percent down and second close escrow.

"We don't allow flipping," he said. "As a developer, we don't feel comfortable with that. That's why we don't let someone assign a contract prior to closing. We've learned over 40 years that the more speculators you have in the building, the more problems we have."

Alex Edelstein, developer of the mid-rise Manhattan condos on Las Vegas Boulevard South, said his project has closed escrow on 404 units and has 63 listed for resale, or less than 16 percent.

"In an upward-moving market, there's value in every condo," he said. "In a stable market, then the value is in the places where lots of people want to live. People will still flow from places they don't want live, let's say cookie-cutter tract homes, to places they do want to live."

Most people will wait one year to sell because the capital gains tax rate drops to 15 percent, Edelstein said. Otherwise, it's equal to their federal income tax rate, which is 30 percent to 35 percent for most people.

Beltz said investors must differentiate between regular condos and condo-hotels such as the Residences at MGM, Platinum and Palms Place, where he bought a 24th-floor studio for $680,000.

Project CityCenter is "extremely hot right now," he said.

"I've met with them twice and I'm on their list to buy at Veer. They told me that one gentleman bought 25 units at Mandarin Oriental for $4 million each, or $100 million total," Beltz said. "Amazing."

He said half the value of buying a condo-hotel can be in the rental program. He cited $200 average room prices for a night at The Venetian hotel with 95 percent occupancy.

Not every condo investor makes money in Las Vegas. One woman who asked not to be identified told the Review-Journal she's losing her $200,000 reservation deposit at Trump International because her investor partner from the Middle East backed out of the deal and she can't close escrow. She said Trump will not refund her deposit.

A California couple said they put $200,000 down on a unit at Spanish View Towers, which has halted construction in the southwest valley, and can't get it back.

Bruce Hiatt of Luxury Realty Group said he received a call from the woman at Trump a couple months ago and told her she can always advertise to have a new partner join the contract. He works with developers to receive permission to add another name to the contract, though they won't let the seller take off their name.