Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. is selling its flagship hotel, the historic Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, for $1.95 billion, illustrating the heated competition—particularly among foreigners—for famous luxury properties that only a few years ago struggled to fill their rooms. 
 
 The Waldorf sale, to Anbang Insurance Group Co. of China, carries the steepest price tag ever for a U.S. hotel, brokers say, although it isn’t the highest on a... 

 The apartments in Waldorf Towers feature high ceilings, large marble bathrooms and generous-sized rooms that could prove attractive. 
 
 “This relationship represents a unique opportunity for our organizations to work together to finally maximize the full value of this iconic asset on a full city block in Midtown Manhattan,” Christopher J. Nassetta, the president and chief executive of Hilton Worldwide, said in a statement. 
 
 Earlier this year, Hilton had indicated it was considering a sale of the property. Two other groups quickly offered to buy it for around $2 billion, but Anbang ultimately signed the contract. 
 
 Five-star hotels in cities like London, Paris and New York are a coveted commodity for international buyers. The current owner of the Plaza on Central Park West is the Sahara Group of India, but it has passed through the hands of Israelis and Saudi Arabians along the way. 
 
 Another Indian company, Taj Hotel Resorts, runs the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue, at 61st Street. And the Carlyle Hotel, at Madison Avenue and 76th Street, is owned by New World Development of Hong Kong. Constellation Hotels, an investment group based in Qatar and Luxembourg, bought 80 percent of the InterContinental Hotel on 48th Street. 
 
 But Chinese companies, in particular, have made a splash of late by buying New York real estate. Fosun International bought One Chase Manhattan Plaza, the downtown office building, for $725 million last year. SOHO China and a Brazilian billionaire bought a 40 percent stake in the General Motors Building. And in Brooklyn, Greenland Holding Group bought a 70 percent stake in the 22-acre development now called Pacific Park that had been known as Atlantic Yards. 
 
 The original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was on a parcel now occupied by the Empire State Building. It started with the 13-story Waldorf Hotel at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street in 1893. Four years later, John Jacob Astor IV opened the 17-story Astoria hotel next door. The corridor between the two hotels became known as the Waldorf-Astoria. By the 1920s, the Astoria was dated and out of favor. The Astor family sold it to the developers of the Empire State Building.
– New York City's Waldorf Astoria, one of the world's most famous hotels, is being bought by a firm that isn't exactly a household name in the US: China's Anbang Insurance Group. The company is buying Hilton Worldwide Holdings' flagship hotel for $1.95 billion, more than $1 million for each of its 1,413 rooms and a record for an American hotel, reports the Wall Street Journal. The hotel, which covers a full city block in midtown Manhattan, first opened in 1931, and regular guests are unlikely to notice many changes under the new ownership: Hilton will continue to operate the hotel under a 100-year management contract. The Chinese government recently made it easier for companies to buy real estate overseas, and the Waldorf Astoria is the latest of several prestige properties in New York City to be snapped up by Chinese firms. "The Chinese have money to spend and the inclination to do so," the chief executive of consulting firm Lodging Advisors tells the New York Times. "The property will continue to be an iconic hotel even if it's owned by a foreign entity." Hilton, meanwhile, is expected to use the $1.95 billion to buy more hotels.