IN most cities the phrase luxury apartment refers to an apartment in a new building.

Another 260 apartments in a new building on Canfield Avenue called Clayton Park came on the market in November.

It states that a studio at Lincoln Towers is as large as a one-bedroom apartment in a new building, even though it costs less than a new studio.

Instead of a waiver, intelligent revision of the local law would limit the number of apartments in a new building for which full-scale accessibility to the handicapped is required.

One recent flier offered $1,000 off the first month's rent for apartments in a new building at Rutgers Street and East Broadway on the Lower East Side.

The program, administered by the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, provides tax incentives for developers who set aside 20 percent of the apartments in a new building for low-income households.

He begins to call his girlfriend "Darling" instead of "Baby" and, as the ultimate sign of his achievement, he moves into a chic white-on-white apartment in a new building called Whiteyman's Towers.

She had another couple who were interested in an apartment in a new building visit other projects by the same developer, as well as those built by the same construction company, to examine the quality of the work.

Michael Finder, a real estate lawyer in Manhattan, had a client who verbally agreed to the price of an apartment in a new building shortly after the offering plan was accepted by the New York State Attorney General's Office.

And if that isn't disconcerting enough, Mr. Samton said, there is the irritating fact that most purchase agreements for apartments in a new building give the developer a large window of time within which to obtain the temporary certificate of occupancy.

Shaya Boymelgreen, a developer who is now renting apartments in a new building he constructed on Second Street and Avenue B, sat down with a calculator and explained why empty land in the East Village was worth so much.