Student housing lending faces a number of uncertainties as 2021 begins: agency policies affecting available sources of lending, the availability of distressed properties, special considerations for Tier 2 and 3 schools and the difficulties of obtaining construction and permanent financing under certain circumstances. Timothy S. Bradley, founder of TSB Capital Advisors and a principal of TSB Realty, explains his outlook on 2021 for the student housing industry, including some of the intricacies in student housing finance versus conventional multifamily. While the two classes did not face vastly different outcomes before COVID, “Post-COVID is a completely different story. There is a significant delta when you are looking at permanent financing for student housing right now versus conventional. The agencies [have enacted] COVID reserves that have been instituted in new loan originations — and most new loan originations are for acquisitions versus refinancing right now. We are starting to see them reduce the reserves, but they were doing it for both multifamily and student.” Bradley explains, “However the interest rates that, over the past three to four months, you could get for conventional housing versus student ranged anywhere from 50 to 75 basis points better for conventional. This allows the conventional market cap rates to keep compressing …
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Walker & Dunlop: SFR/BFR Rapidly Growing Option for Rental Spaces
The strength of multifamily has been well solidified over the past few years, but a new contender in the rental market is making waves, according to Kris Mikkelsen, executive vice president, Walker & Dunlop Investment Sales. Single-family rental (SFR) and build-for-rent (BFR) spaces are growing increasingly popular. An SFR is a group of homes-for-rent pooled together for investment purposes BFR properties are purpose-built housing operated as SFR investments “SFR is in the distributed model: individual homes managed by tech-driven management platforms that were the formation of the single-family REITs you see in existence today. The build-for-rent space existed pre-COVID but has really been accelerated post-COVID as the end consumer looks to de-densify,” says Mikkelsen. Much of the demand has been driven to more suburban markets, with COVID-19 creating a sudden and palpable need for space among renters. Other factors — including declining home ownership rates and the high demand for multifamily options — have all contributed to the growth of this asset class and subsequent interest from larger institutional investors. Watch Mikkelsen’s interview to learn about demand for SFR/BFR space and changing renter demographics accelerating the growth of this asset class. This article is posted as part of REBusinessOnline’s Finance Insight series. Click here to …
2020 was a year of job losses and difficulties for many. There was a great deal of need for affordable housing but also challenges for those seeking to provide it. Process delays caused by COVID-19 and slowdowns in funding hampered efforts to develop affordable housing, according to Gregg Gerken, Head of U.S. Commercial Real Estate with TD Bank. The question is: will the affordable housing and workforce housing industry be better served by 2021? The problem of affordable housing is one seen in many communities, irrespective of geography. “I think some communities have the equivalent of workforce housing, which in many cases is affordable. But when you get into a lot of the more expensive urban areas and densely populated cities there’s this issue of supply and demand — there just isn’t enough supply of affordable housing to really reach the demand,” Gerken says. How have government programs and policies affected the affordable housing sector? How will renters and landlords be impacted by these programs going forward? What happens after the end of the eviction moratorium? Watch the interview for Gerken’s insights on affordable housing development. This article is posted as part of REBusinessOnline’s Finance Insight series. Click here to subscribe to the Finance Insight newsletter, a …
Student housing demonstrated its resilience in the face of COVID-19 challenges, but what can the industry expect going forward? Timothy S. Bradley, founder, TSB Capital Advisors, and principal, TSB Realty, sat down with Finance Insight to discuss financing and expectations for student housing in the fall of 2021 and beyond. Finance Insight: How was 2020 for TSB? Bradley: We were fortunate. Many observers assumed the student housing industry would be devastated by COVID-19-forced school closures and campus clusters. Instead, thanks in large part to the rational and institutional nature of our major operators, investors and lenders, the industry proved its resiliency once again. We were affected by the pandemic, of course, and had to adjust some of our early year projections, but TSB companies still closed on a total transaction volume of approximately $4 billion, including construction loans, stabilized term loans and interim loans, as well as sales, and joint venture partnership consultations. There will be other challenges our industry faces in the years to come, but it’s difficult to imagine a more challenging singular event than the one we experienced this year with COVID-19. All things considered, we felt very good about 2020, and we’re even more optimistic about 2021. …
The seniors housing industry has had a particularly challenging year. But the latest data from NIC MAP shows COVID cases are down in nursing homes and occupancies are expected to rebound from historic lows in the coming months, says Matt Pipitone, seniors housing platform manager with M&T Realty Capital Corp. (MTRCC). It remains to be seen how quickly leasing will ramp up and to what extent rents and incentives will be impacted long term. But in the meantime, Pipitone points to some positives on the financial side of the industry. Namely, the government has provided several rounds of stimulus money, which has helped operators, especially those who manage skilled nursing facilities. And Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD have offered assistance to borrowers in the form of forbearance programs and other debt service relief. The agencies also remain active, but are cautious when treading in the sector, Pipitone says. “Fannie and Freddie have pulled back. Overall leverage is down, and there are debt service reserves required on new deals. But the rate environment is still really good. HUD, on the other hand, has been really steady. Borrowers can still get up to 80 percent loan-to-value with 1.45 times debt service …
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Walker & Dunlop: Single-Family Rental and Build-for-Rent in High Demand
A number of factors are driving an increase in demand for single-family rental assets. Declines in home ownership rates, increasing demand/short supply for multifamily options and baby boomer renting preferences have made renting these single-family properties an increasingly popular choice. Meanwhile, COVID-19 spurred increases in teleworking that created a desire for additional space in the home and allowed more people to move to suburban locations — accelerating demand for single-family rental properties. Seeing the growing demand and increasing rents in the single-family rental (SFR) and build-for-rent (BFR) sector, Walker & Dunlop has created a new team — Walker & Dunlop SFR & BFR Practice Group — to provide investors information on construction, bridge lending, permanent financing, equity structuring and property sales, for a market estimated at $3.4 trillion (compared to $3.5 trillion for the multifamily market).1 Popularity, high occupancy and increasing rent rates have drawn the attention of larger investors to SFR and BFR assets, according to Kris Mikkelsen, executive vice president of investment sales with Walker & Dunlop. “Currently, larger investors make up less than 2 percent of the SFR market, which has been traditionally governed by individuals or small-scale parties. But that number will increase as investors recognize …
NorthMarq has added a multifamily investment sales team to its Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., offices. The new team, which consists of Andrea Howard, Jeff Glenn, John Currin, Allan Lynch and Caylor Mark, all formerly of JLL, brings NorthMarq’s investment sales locations to 18. This addition also allows NorthMarq to expand its visibility, Carolinas coverage and service offerings to clients as the firm sets its sights on high-growth markets. Trevor Koskovich, NorthMarq’s president of investment sales, sat down with Finance Insight to discuss the multifamily investment sales market and his new five-person team. Finance Insight: What does this new team and location add to the NorthMarq platform and breadth of services? Koskovich: The new Raleigh and Charlotte locations allow NorthMarq to be in lower-regulation, high-growth U.S. regions. From an investment sales perspective, we’re really targeting high-growth markets for population movement and investment sales transaction volume. Raleigh and Charlotte continue to be part of this conversation, and we’re super excited about our new team’s ability to service those markets. This new team will help us drive more business through the Southeast and in overlapping markets, including Nashville, Chattanooga and north Florida. These team members are an integral part of our growth platform, …
By Gregg Gerken, Head of Commercial Real Estate for TD Bank Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a struggle to build or find affordable housing. But since the pandemic broke out, finding affordable housing may be even harder for those who now need it most. A Problem Made Worse by a Global Pandemic The lack of affordable housing was an urban, suburban and rural problem even before COVID-19. Rent-burdened families and seniors living on a budget reside in almost every small and large city in America. While the $600 per month unemployment payments, stimulus checks and extension of eviction moratoriums have helped, the bottom line is that those most affected by COVID-19 financially still have the longest road to recovery and need more assistance – especially affordable housing – to get back on their feet. The Tenant Versus Landlord Narrative Multifamily housing renters are trying hard to make rent, but some just can’t, and that hardship then tilts onto landlords who are trying to cover payroll, taxes, utilities, upkeep and mortgages. The looming crisis now is that millions of renters are behind on their rent with approximately $70 billion due in back payments that could create a wave …
Ralph Cram, president and manager of Envoy Net Lease Partners LLC, is responsible for providing strategy, marketing and investment advice on all aspects of net lease property investments. He believes 2021 will be a banner year for net lease, and that Envoy is particularly well suited when it comes to providing “one-stop shopping” for developers. Finance Insight: How is Envoy is different from a “normal” commercial real estate finance provider? Cram: Envoy’s focus is construction and bridge loan lending on single-tenant, net-lease properties in most commercial real estate segments such as retail, restaurant, medical and industrial properties. What differentiates us from most lenders is that first and foremost, Envoy can lend up to 100 percent of the total project costs. A developer receives all the project’s capital from one source without having to take on outside investors and time-consuming joint-venture (JV) and related agreements. Envoy’s “one-stop shopping” allows developers to concentrate on what they do best and provides the entirety of financing and other capital considerations for a given project. Second, the only thing we do is lend on net-lease properties, so we are experts. We don’t do an apartment loan one day and a PPP loan the next. We don’t leave, enter and then re-exit the net-lease market and …
The marketplace is wary in the lead-up to the 2020 election, but Anuj Gupta, president of Commercial Real Estate Lending with Ready Capital, says there’s opportunity for bridge lenders in the meantime as equity investors look for higher returns. Gupta believes rates will be lower for a longer period, although there is no telling what might happen after the election. Gupta feels confident about Ready Capital’s preferred strategy of focusing on small-to-medium loan sizes in secondary markets. In gateway cities, the company is supportive of creative solutions to high rent, like co-living, a sector that is expected to grow aggressively over the next few years. Meanwhile, Ready Capital is working to stay ahead of the curve by looking at more efficient ways to tackle lending in the small-to-medium sized real estate market with new technology. Watch the interview to learn more about how Ready Capital is taking advantage of the present while preparing for the future. This video is posted as part of REBusinessOnline’s Finance Insight series, covering MBA CREF 2020. Click here to subscribe to the Finance Insight newsletter, a four-week newsletter series, followed by video interviews from MBA CREF.