Dive Brief:
- Apartment sales increased 40% year over year to $10.5 billion in November, according to a report that data firm MSCI Real Assets shared with Multifamily Dive.
- Boosted by New York City-based investment manager Blackstone’s $10 billion purchase of Denver-based Apartment Income REIT Corp. in June, 2024 apartment sales have officially outpaced 2023’s trades by 2%. Even without that sale, “activity was still trending favorably in November,” according to MSCI.
- Prices fell 5.7% YOY in November.
Dive Insight:
Transactions for individual properties rose 13% YOY to $7.9 billion in November, while portfolio deals jumped 420% to $2.6 billion.
MSCI noted that individual sales through November had almost reached 2023’s totals, while single asset trades needed $7.5 billion in December to hit the threshold from a year ago — an attainable goal given the pace of sales over the last six months.
Sales of garden properties ticked up 48% YOY to $6.8 billion. However, they lagged 2023’s trades by 4% through the first 11 months of the year.
Mid- and high-rise apartment sales increased 27% YOY to $3.6 billion in November. Through the first 11 months of 2024, individual trades of those higher-density properties already surpassed 2023’s by 13%.
MSCI isn’t alone seeing an uptick in the market. Matt Ranalli, co-founder and chief investment officer of Boston-based apartment owner Jones Street Investment Partners, has seen more sales activity recently.
“There's a softening from what it was nine months ago, 12 months ago or 18 months ago,” Ranalli told Multifamily Dive. “There is capital stepping back into the market to try to buy.”
However, even with the sales boost in the second half of the year, 2024 is still trending below expectations.
“I think everybody thought we would see more deal volume this year than we have,” said Jay Parsons, head of investment strategy at Lubbock, Texas-based Madera Residential, told Multifamily Dive. “Obviously, there's been some big portfolio trades, but the total volumes are still low.”
Click here to sign up to receive multifamily and apartment news like this article in your inbox every weekday.
