How many new apartments aren't dull? If you're spending $90 million on an apartment, the last thing you would want is for it to be in the style of some architect's avant-garde idea of beauty. If you want to add personality, you hire your own interior designers to find your own aesthetic.
If you’re buying a $70mm apartment and living in it, you’re renovating it before moving in.
Sales.
> Feels like rentseeking and waste to me
It’s wasteful. But it’s not rent seeking [1]. If it makes you feel better, there is a healthy secondary market in New York for these materials.
Put another way, 4 people moderately interested in the property will probably yield a higher price than 2 people that are very interested in the property.
This is especially true in luxury real estate, where buyers go in looking to substantially change the property. They expect to bring in their own architects and designers. The staging is just a canvas.
These "luxury" apartments do not seem to have things like this. They are missing built-in character, that realistically has nothing to do with the color of the walls or the furniture in the place.
And honestly, even a plain place shows the architect's sense of beauty (or lack thereof).