Features

Lee & Associates: Slowing Absorption, Rent Growth Put Brakes on New Development for Most Real Estate Types, Though Retail Sector Shines

by Sarah Daniels November 7, 2023

Slower absorption and rent growth plagued industrial, office and multifamily asset classes across the United States in the third quarter, as outlined in Lee & Associates’ 2023 Q3 North America Market Report. Some regional exceptions were able to buck the overdevelopment trend, but retail was the only property type to avoid the quarter’s shift toward rising vacancy rates. High interest rates, slower rent growth and fear of overbuilding have contributed to lower construction starts in every sector. The full Lee & Associates report is available — including breakdowns of factors like detailed vacancy rates, inventory square footage, cap rates outlined city by city, market rents and more — here. The analysis below provides an overview of industrial, office, retail and multifamily real estate sectors alongside sector trends, economic background as well as geographic exceptions within each property type. Industrial Overview: Absorption Continues Slowing, Inventories to Spike Demand for industrial space remained positive in the United States in the third quarter, but growth this year has lost steam compared to strong net absorption totals of the last two years. U.S. net growth in the third quarter totaled 29.9 million square feet compared to 94 million square feet for the same period last year. …

November 7, 2023

Features

‘The Great Reset:’ Emerging Trends Report Predicts a New Era for Commercial Real Estate

by Katie Sloan November 2, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The COVID-19 pandemic is moving further into the rearview mirror, alongside the prospect of commercial real estate quickly returning to pre-pandemic norms. After three years of cautious optimism, industry leaders are concluding that most will not be returning to the office as often — or, for some, at all. The implications of this shift will be profound for the commercial real estate industry, and not only for office owners, brokers and managers, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2024, an annual report jointly produced by PwC US and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). The report includes proprietary data and insights from more than 2,000 leading real estate industry experts, gathered through a survey and in-person interviews. Aftershock from the changing office landscape will be felt across multiple asset classes, according to the report, with downtowns and other property sectors that depend on a lively office market feeling the brunt of the impact. This is leading ULI to term the next year in commercial real estate “The Great Reset.” From an investment standpoint, these changes will require long-held principles of portfolio construction to be re-evaluated. Sales transactions for office buildings are down more than twice as much as …

November 2, 2023

Acquisitions Content Partner Features Leasing Activity Multifamily NAI Single-Family Rental Southeast Texas

Southeast Single-Family Rental Market Remains Resilient

by Sarah Daniels October 31, 2023

Families searching for more space, in part as remote work options retain their hold on the workplace landscape, plus strong migration into the Southeast have helped fuel a robust single-family rental market, especially in Atlanta and other Georgia markets over the last several years. More recently, young renters pairing up to share the growing burden of housing costs, as well as would-be home buyers putting off a purchase because of higher interest rates, have also gravitated toward single-family rentals, says Troy Reynolds, a multifamily advisor with NAI G2 Commercial Real Estate, who has added single-family rentals to his business focus. Given the lack of housing supply in the Southeast, these conditions are likely to persist for the foreseeable future. As a result, a growing number of investors have been piling into the assets amid a multifamily investment market saturated with buyers and a consequent leap in prices over the past few years, he adds. “We just don’t have enough housing to meet all the demand, and we continue to see a mass exodus from other states into the Southeast, and particularly into Georgia,” Reynolds states. “So, we’re seeing a lot of younger as well as newer investment groups coming …

October 31, 2023

Acquisitions Features Multifamily

The 411 on 1031s: What to Know Before Making a Tax-Deferred Swap in the Multifamily Sector

by Jeff Shaw October 27, 2023

By Paul Waterloo, Interra Realty 1031 exchanges are an effective way for investors to protect their capital. They also historically have experienced strong fundamentals in the long term. Why, then, aren’t more multifamily investors taking advantage of tax-deferred swaps? Many property owners simply lack the expertise and industry connections to source acquisition opportunities that meet their objectives. This is especially true considering the tight timeframe many 1031 exchanges operate under, as these types of deals have a built-in ticking clock. Once an investor sells an asset, he or she has 45 days to identify a replacement property and 180 days to close. That’s a very short window in which to secure financing and perform proper due diligence. There remains uncertainty among some investors about 1031 exchanges, which allow an investor to defer capital gains on a property sale when those funds are used to acquire a “like kind” property. The IRS considers two assets to be like kind so long as they both are used for business purposes or held as an investment. This means investors may exit one sector and broaden their exposure to another. With the right counsel, however, an investor can make smart decisions that take advantage …

October 27, 2023

High Tech Solutions Lenders Bill Hyman Lument quote

Content Partner Features Loans Lument Midwest Multifamily Northeast Southeast Texas Video Western

How One Lender Is Finding High-Tech Solutions to Complicated Application Processes

by Sarah Daniels October 26, 2023

Today’s accelerating technology transformation is altering how the commercial real estate industry executes transactions and manages assets. “The amount of information that a multifamily borrower needs to submit and disclose has become more demanding over time,” says William (Bill) Hyman, a Lument senior managing director who oversees the firm’s strategic business technology transformation and conventional loan production. “That has made due diligence more complex and data intensive, and we wanted to create a more secure and expedient way to tackle that process.” Seeing this need, Lument responded by creating a suite of proprietary technology tools. Across the industry, the advent of online, friendlier multifamily loan application and servicing processes has not only eliminated the transfer of sensitive information through email by moving the processes to secure portals, but it has also streamlined common paper-based, time-consuming and burdensome tasks. That has translated into much speedier decisions about loans and responses to questions and requests. LeapOnline Beginnings Lument is a commercial real estate finance solutions provider based in New York that specializes in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Housing Administration and balance sheet lending. The company’s digital transformation began in 2017. At the time, the company saw the opportunity to better …

October 26, 2023

John Ducey Walker & Dunlop agency financing affordable housing

Affordable Housing Content Partner Development Features Loans Midwest Multifamily Northeast Southeast Texas Walker & Dunlop Western

How to Maximize Agency Financing for Affordable Housing

by Sarah Daniels October 24, 2023

There are a variety of ways to build affordable housing, but implementing these strategies has become an increasingly difficult proposition in 2023. Affordable housing projects seem to face challenges on every front. Generally affordable housing developers will: Despite intensifying renter demand for new units, developers are struggling to make their projects financially feasible, says John Ducey, chief production officer in the affordable lending group at Walker & Dunlop. “Affordable housing developers are facing some of the toughest headwinds I’ve seen in more than 20 years in the industry,” Ducey says. “That means developers are forced to work harder than ever to structure deals that stretch scarce housing subsidies and maximize agency financing.” Challenging Conditions One impediment to affordable housing efforts is reduced future rent levels, related to area median income (AMI) caps the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) imposed recently on LIHTC properties in many markets in the United States. The unexpectedly restrictive caps forced developers to slash revenue projections, scuttling some transactions and forcing many loan applicants to renegotiate or seek alternative financing to salvage deals. On the expense side, inflation and the labor crunch continue to drive up costs for new construction, renovation of older affordable …

October 24, 2023

California Features Property Type Retail

The Unstoppable Rise Of The Outlet Mall

by Hayden Spiess October 19, 2023

For decades, outlet malls have been a popular destination for shoppers of all ages. From the first multi-store outlet center that Vanity Fair opened in 1974, in Reading, Pennsylvania, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s, outlet malls grew rapidly. Outlet malls offer a wide variety of name-brand merchandise at discounted prices, and as a result, they are a great way to save money on popular brands of clothes, shoes, and accessories. Although outlet malls have been around for decades, the pandemic was a major hit to the retail landscape. Prior to 2020, outlet malls were seeing a surge in popularity, as consumers became more price-conscious and savvy on how to save money on their favorite brands. In June 2022, visits to outlet malls in the U.S. were down 6.7 percent from 2021 and down 14.3 percent from 2019, according to Placer.ai. This had outlet mall developers scrambling for a strategy and a path forward. Growth in California One of the most thriving outlet malls in the country is the Outlets at Tejon in Tejon Ranch, California, strategically located on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, just south of the Highway 99 interchange. This mall is home to over 50 …

October 19, 2023

Matt Mrva Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Site Selection Quote

Bohler Content Partner Development Features Industrial Life Sciences Midwest Northeast Office Southeast Texas Western

Site Design Science: How Understanding Operations Draws Pharmaceutical Manufacturers

by Sarah Daniels October 17, 2023

Pharmaceutical companies have captured the interest of many developers and with good reason. Softening demand for traditional office space has planners looking for alternative uses to fill out business parks and multiuse developments, and drug makers represent a promising source of highly valuable occupancy. Speculative construction that accelerated during the pandemic has given pharmaceutical manufacturers plenty of options and enabled them to be choosy in site selection. However, to compete for end users, developers must ensure their properties offer the features and amenities drug makers seek, says Matt Mrva, northeast director of planning and landscape architecture at Bohler, a land development consulting and site design firm. “Simply adding a life sciences label on conventional flex space is unlikely to lure pharma companies. Research, lab and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities often require specialized infrastructure and site layouts,” Mrva says. “Even if a property is zoned to allow for life sciences, design and development teams need to understand the proposed operations in order to optimize the facility.” Unique Facility Requirements Depending on anticipated needs, tenants may require advanced climate control and ventilation, redundant electrical feeds, high-volume water and sewer service, on-site wastewater pretreatment, backup power generation, reinforced floors to handle the weight of …

October 17, 2023

Acquisitions Content Partner Development Features Midwest NAI Northeast Self-Storage Southeast Texas Western

Following Pandemic-Fueled Run-Up in Acquisition Prices, Where Is Self-Storage Headed?

by Sarah Daniels October 12, 2023

Self-storage has had an amazing run since just before the pandemic. Cap rates started near 6 percent, with buildings starting at $150 per square foot. Then came the flood of pandemic capital pushing prices — by mid-2022 prices jumped to a point no one had previously experienced. “In some of the bigger markets, we were seeing per-square-foot prices of $300 and above for the first time,” says Denise Nunez, executive managing director with NAI Horizon. Cap rates fell to as low as 4 percent. “The low cap rates had gotten to such a point where many brokers were not even pricing deals because they didn’t want to miss that extra that they could get on the sale.” But rising interest rates have had an impact on self-storage, as they have had on every other commercial real estate asset class, with prices reversing again. Investors are still unsure of what the Federal Reserve will be doing in the near term with monetary policy. Building costs are high — final delivery construction costs are still higher by 40 percent or more than pre-pandemic. That reality has resulted in investors alternating between cold feet and, with some signs that the Fed may plan …

October 12, 2023

Features Industrial North Carolina Southeast Southeast Feature Archive

Industrial Owners Seeking Fair Tax Treatment Should Differentiate Personal Property From Real Estate Values

by John Nelson October 10, 2023

North Carolina taxes both real estate and personal property, but differing valuation schedules and processes for the two types can lead to confusion and inflated tax bills for industrial property owners. Understanding how assessors value industrial properties can help those taxpayers detect issues and contest unfair assessments. Dual processes North Carolina requires assessors to revalue real property at least every eight years. The value as of Jan. 1 of the valuation year then remains constant until the next valuation, unless specified changes in the property occur to trigger a change in the assessment. Many counties revalue every four years, and a few, even more frequently. Assessors use a market analysis to determine real property’s taxable or fair market value. This involves applying one or more of the three valuation approaches: cost, comparable sales, or income. The state requires annual valuation of personal property based on installed cost, which is subject to the applicable trending and depreciation schedules. For the most part, taxing authorities rely on the taxpayer’s annual business personal property listing to determine what items of personal property are present, the installed cost, and the trending and depreciation schedule applied. The counties follow schedules for auditing the property tax …

October 10, 2023

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