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When Harold Tischler of Vintage Builders broke ground on his new apartment building on Willoughby Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the city's real estate market was on fire.

"We thought not only we'd be sold, but we'd have people throwing money at us and we'd raise the prices," said Tischler.

Instead, he has been forced to lower prices, and has only sold a quarter of his apartments.

"All we need now is a tenant," said Tischler.

In the last four years, more than 120,000 new residential units were built in the city, and the boroughs outside Manhattan have seen a boom in construction.

But as the epicenter of the financial meltdown, and with credit markets frozen solid, city home sales have declined by 30 percent.

"As the market turned rather sharply and dramatically in September, sales slowed up significantly," said Michael Slattery of the Real Estate Board of New York.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg want to work with developers who can't sell their units, to negotiate the lowest price to turn vacant apartments into affordable housing.

But the details could take months to settle.

"You can do it in various ways," said Queens Councilwoman Melinda Katz. "You can either do it as part of the stimulus package and add to that with the federal tax breaks. We could negotiate with the landlords just for a cheaper price."

The city will want to drive a hard bargain, and some developers may opt to ride out the current market downturn.

Bloomberg already warned that the city does not want to own the apartments.

"We do not want to be a landlord. That's not what city government should do," he said.

Developer Jeffrey Levine says a combination of subsidies and tax incentives could be an enticement for owners who cannot move properties off their balance sheets and banks who have financed buildings in trouble.

"A tax abatement as a result to going affordable in conjunction with low income housing tax credits or subsidies could create viable affordable housing," said Levine.

Yet both Levine and Tischler were reluctant to guarantee anything before seeing the final agreement.

"We'd be interested in seeing the plan the city's proposed, but the city has a lot of red tape," said Tischler.

Still, proponents say it's an opportunity to keep working families in the city.

"What a shame in the City of New York that there's vacant apartments just waiting to be had by people who really need them," said Katz

Yet despite political needs, the builders just want to find buyers.