The apartment sales landscape is changing dramatically in 2010, as institutions and public companies step away from new offerings after accounting for some 42 percent of dispositions last year. Indeed, AIMCO and Equity Residential were Nos. 1 and 2 on last year’s Top Apartment Sellers list. Institutions such as CalPERS were also on the list and accounted for a healthy 19 percent of sales in 2009, but have since cut disposition activity by more than half.
Although REITs have been behind one-fifth of apartment sales volume so far this year, they have withdrawn new offerings from the market almost entirely. However, private investors, after reducing their disposition activity to its lowest level in several years in 2009, have stepped up the pace of new offerings this year close to pre-crisis levels.
At the same time, lenders selling assets out of REO or otherwise have become a key force in the apartment market, more than doubling their disposition share from 15 percent in 2009 to 33 percent this year. Lenders were completely absent from the apartment market prior to 2008.
Source: Real Capital Analytics