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Powell’s Congressional Testimony Likely Means More Rate Hikes

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As they say, if you don’t want the answer, don’t ask the question. But Congress did insist that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell talk about the economy and the Fed’s take this morning. His testimony is probably not what most people want to hear, but certainly what businesspeople, especially in CRE, need to.

If, like an economic Dylan Thomas, you were concerned that the Fed’s policies might go gentle into that good night, don’t worry, they aren’t.

In the testimony, Powell quickly invoked the Fed’s dual mandate of promoting maximum employment and stable prices. Notice, there is no direct mention of easing business costs or supporting asset prices. Those are supposed to come as byproducts — boost business to indirectly promote employment and slow it to moderate prices.

“We have covered a lot of ground, and the full effects of our tightening so far are yet to be felt,” Powell said, for those who want a pause to assess progress. “Even so, we have more work to do. Our policy actions are guided by our dual mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices. Without price stability, the economy does not work for anyone. In particular, without price stability, we will not achieve a sustained period of labor market conditions that benefit all.”

 

Or, as Oxford Economics translated in an emailed note: “Fed Chair Jerome Powell used his semi-annual testimony to push back against financial markets as his comments were hawkish, noting that the terminal rate for the fed funds rate could be higher than previously anticipated. He noted that he isn’t hesitant to increase the pace of rate hikes if the data on employment and inflation continue to come in stronger than anticipated.”

Although inflation had seemed to be slowing, January was a jarring reminder that inexorable progress toward goals is unusual. Jobs, consumer spending, manufacturing numbers, and inflation “reversed the softening trends that we had seen in the data just a month ago.”

It was the “breadth of the reversal” that meant inflation was running hotter than during the last meeting of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee. And even then, the underlying message was not to expect immediate lower interest rates.

Inflation “remains well above the FOMC’s longer-run objective of 2 percent,” and Powell was talking not just the overall number, in which housing costs were a major driver. He specifically mentioned core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) inflation without the volatility of food and energy that push upwards, and core services without housing, which discounts that outlier.

“Although nominal wage gains have slowed somewhat in recent months, they remain above what is consistent with 2 percent inflation and current trends in productivity,” said Powell. “Strong wage growth is good for workers but only if it is not eroded by inflation.”

 

Then he got to interest rates. “We continue to anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range for the federal funds rate will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2 percent over time. In addition, we are continuing the process of significantly reducing the size of our balance sheet.”

So, continuation of maybe 25-basis point increases and also continued scaling down of the balance sheet, which means reducing purchases of bonds that help fuel home mortgages and, so, that entire part of the construction and sales ecosystem.

However, the maybe is not to be ignored.

“While a quarter-point increase in the Federal Funds rate is still the most likely outcome of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting, expect the Fed to adopt a half-point increase in March if data on inflation and labor conditions continue to run hotter than expected,” said Marty Green, a principal with mortgage law firm, Polunsky Beitel Green, in an emailed note.

 

Source:  GlobeSt.

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Our Sales Were Up In Q4. Let Us Help You.

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It was a rough fourth quarter for commercial real estate brokers in South Florida, as property sales plunged 55% compared to a year ago, according to property data firm Vizzda.

There were $5.2 billion in commercial real estate sales of at least $1 million each in the tri-county region, down from $11.6 billion in the same quarter a year ago. The number of transactions fell 40% to 631. The average price of each deal also fell.

The two main factors that led to a dramatic drop in sales were the reluctance of buyers and sellers to agree on a price and the lack of bank financing, said Paul Tanner, founding partner of Fort Lauderdale-based Las Olas Capital, which invests in commercial real estate. Lenders have started asking for much more equity in deals, often making them unfeasible, he said.

“We started feeling it [the slowdown] in late August and by Sept. 15 it was pencil’s down,” Tanner said. “The lending institutions wanted to see how interest rates would play out, how the recession would play out and no one was willing to be bold.”

Rising interest rates impact commercial real estate prices because they make debt more expensive, which reduces profit margins for buyers. It also increases the expenses for development, which was already impacted by rising construction costs. Tanner said many developers were slow-rolling their projects rather than moving forward aggressively to close on land and obtain a construction loan.

“Capital markets are currently in a period of price discovery largely driven by debt markets, not underlying fundamentals,” said CBRE Executive Managing Director Josh Bank, who oversees Florida. “And although U.S. commercial real estate investment volume fell from 2021’s record levels, 2022 was still the second-highest year on record with South Florida ranked in the top five markets for annual investment volume.”

Ryan Nee, senior VP for Marcus & Millichap in Fort Lauderdale, said there’s a price gap between buyers and sellers that has slowed transactions. Sellers want the prices of early 2022, but they’re largely no longer available. Buyers are seeking significant discounts, as not only have interest rates increased, but a dramatic spike in insurance costs for commercial real estate in recent months has eroded their profit margins, he said.

“The brakes have been put on and it’s hard to bridge the gap,” Nee said. “The Fed tapering rate hikes has added some calm to the market, but buyers want transparency on what the cost of debt is going to be.”

Multifamily

Vizzda broke down the transaction volume by category. The largest decline was in multifamily, plunging 72% to $1.2 billion. Despite the dramatic increase in rent in South Florida, fewer buyers were able to snag an apartment complex.

Nee said the fundamentals for multifamily in South Florida remain strong, with rising rents, a growing population and relatively low vacancy rates. Yet, the market is still impacted by interest rates and insurance costs, as well as higher property taxes.

Office

The second-largest decline was in the office market, with sales falling 65% to $455 million, according to Vizzda.

Tanner, of Las Olas Capital, said it’s virtually impossible to get a term sheet from a bank for an office acquisition. Many lenders feel the sector is too risky because many companies are permitting remote work and may downsize their office space.

Nee said Class A office space has been performing well in South Florida, because for every company that downsizes there’s another one moving into the market to occupy more space. Yet, buyers and lenders are still uncertain about the future of office and that has slowed transactions.

Retail

Sales of retail property dropped 31% to $1.1 billion. Nee said vacancy rates remain low for retail in South Florida and the population growth will continue to drive demand for space in that sector.

The retail market has done very well in South Florida, as sales are up for many stores and restaurants, said Barry M. Wolfe, senior managing director of retail in South Florida for Marcus & Millichap. However, rising interest rates still put a damper on the number of deals.

Industrial

The industrial market was the least impacted by the slowdown, as sales declined only 11% to $1.14 billion. Nee said vacancy rates are near record low for industrial in the region, there’s tremendous demand from tenants such as e-commerce firms and there’s a limited supply of new development. Those strong fundamentals kept industrial deals going, despite the economic headwinds.

Outlook for 2023

Nee said he expects the number of deals to pick up in the second half of 2023, but prices won’t return to the peaks from early 2022. The first wave of deals will probably be properties with maturing debt, as the owners may decide it makes more sense to sell than to refinance with a higher rate, he said.

“Debt maturing will be the number one catalyst for sales in the first half of this year,” Nee said.

Tanner, of Las Olas Capital, said more deals will take place once the Federal Reserve stops raising rates. After all, banks need to lend to make money.

“Everybody is sticking their head out of the cave and checking the weather out there and looking for a thaw,” Tanner said. “By the second half of this year, we will be back to fully ramped up.”

 

Source: SFBJ

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Expiring Interest Rates To Fuel Distressed Property Sales

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An exponential increase in the cost of interest-rate caps—insurance that CRE borrowers with floating rates purchase to hedge against rate increases—may soon spawn a wave of property sales in an increasingly distressed market.

In 2019, the Mortgage Bankers Association estimated that up to one-third of all commercial property debt was floating rate, with most lenders requiring that borrowers hedge against an increase in the borrowing costs.

When interest rates were low, derivative contracts offering hedges on multimillion-dollar mortgages could be purchased for as low as $10K. Now—as the lion’s share of these insurance contracts are expiring—the cost of rate-cap hedges is as much as 10 times higher that it was a year ago, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Few buyers who opted for floating-rate loans when borrowing costs were low anticipated they were going to have to rebuy a cap at the same time interest rates are peaking, the report said.

According to Michael Gigliotti, co-head of JLL Capital Markets NYC office, many property owners may not have the liquidity to pay the increased insurance costs. Gigliotti told WSJ he expects a surge in property sales this year from owners who chose to unload their assets rather than spend millions on a new rate cap.

“This is the margin call on the real estate industry,” Gigliotti said, warning that a flood of properties going on the block to avoid increased rate cap costs could turn into what he called a “first trigger” pushing down real estate values.

Interest rate caps typically enable a borrower to avoid paying additional interest rates beyond a fixed threshold. According to the WSJ report, speculative ventures, where investors acquire short-term, floating-rate debt to finance building renovations aimed at raising rents have the most exposure to the increased cost of rate-cap hedges.

Apartment owner Investors Management Group was cited as an example of the rate-cap conundrum facing property owners: in 2020, the firm took out a $24.4M loan on a 300-unit multifamily in San Antonio. The firm bought insurance that capped interest at 5%, with the hedge contract costing $22K.

The cap on the San Antonio apartment campus expires in September. The company estimates that purchasing a new two-year hedge will cost $1M—40% of the property’s annual net income.

Floating-rate mortgages on apartment buildings insured by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac can require borrowers to put money into an escrow account to pay for a new rate cap when the old one expires.

A wave of property sales spawned by spiraling rate-cap costs would magnify an already intensifying credit crisis in commercial real estate. According to a new report from Bloomberg, almost $175B of global real estate debt already is distressed, four time more than any other sector in the global economy.

Rising interest rates and the accompanying economic downturn, which appears to be the overture of a looming recession, have created an expanding pipeline of potentially defaulting loans in an environment where property values and cash flows are under pressure in all global markets, Bloomberg reported.

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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Why Sale-Leasebacks Are Especially Important Now

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The current economic climate has been difficult, with Federal Reserve interest rate hikes chasing inflation. Even as some of the pressures might be reaching a plateau, the Fed has made clear that further rate increases are still planned. That has led corporate lenders to become more cautious. They’ve been tightening their standards and lowering the amount of leverage available.

“Typically, a mortgage lender will provide 75% to 80% of the loan-to-value of the property,” says Gordon J. Whiting, managing director and head of net lease real estate at Angelo Gordon. “In today’s macroeconomic conditions, it’s much harder to get access to capital, it’s harder to get a loan, and you’re only getting 60%.”

Even as the corporate lending market has become less liquid and more expensive, capital remains available for sale-leasebacks at very attractive terms. Even as property values have been dropping — though they’re still largely at or above pre-pandemic valuations — the return to a company is still better. “They’re able to get 100% of the value today,” says Whiting.

The Advantage of Renting

There’s rent to pay, yes, but unlike interest on a loan, it’s completely deductible as an operating expense. The seller can also typically negotiate control for 20 years with options to extend.

“The rental will be lower than what they’d have to pay in financing,” Whiting adds.

And the longer the lease term, the better the value to both the buyer and the seller, making negotiation of that point easier.

With the future uncertain and rates potentially going higher, there is also value in locking down a strategy with certainty.

“You’re better off doing a sale-leaseback and paying off some of the more expensive or floating rate debt,” notes Whiting. “Cash is king.”

The more liquidity on hand, the easier it is to deal with unforeseen circumstances.

Why Working Capital Now Is King

Sale-leasebacks are also a great source of acquisition financing, particularly in the current market environment, where distress may drive opportunities for strategic add-on acquisitions. Companies can use sale-leaseback proceeds to help fund new acquisitions or expand upon existing platforms. A vertically integrated company might decide to buy a supplier. Sponsors can do the same, using proceeds of a sale-leaseback done at the time of an acquisition to lower their capital costs for the deal.

“Now sale-leasebacks are another arrow in a CFO’s quiver,” Whiting says.

From Whiting’s view, the market uncertainty and potential for ongoing rate increases are also a source of danger, with a sale-leaseback being an option to consider sooner, not later.

“Time is not your friend,” he says. “In our view, we’re headed into an environment where you’re going to be glad you did it the day before and not the day after.”

 

Source:  GlobeSt.

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6 Things Investors Should Consider With CRE Market In Flux

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South Florida’s commercial real estate market is certainly in flux. Owners, buyers and sellers are adjusting to higher interest rates, continued supply chain challenges and an uncertain economic outlook.

Deals are still being done and space is still being leased. But in this inflationary environment, deals have to make sense, with a cushion to account for the unpredictability of 2023 and beyond.

With all this in mind, here are some points to consider for companies and individual investors who are involved in the commercial real estate market or are looking to get into it.

1. With more properties now getting less attractive cash flows, sellers are often grouping assets together for sales.

This can make sales transactions more complicated, and buyers need to work with their banking partner to make sure the overall risk-reward equation works for them.

2. The demise of the office market seems to be overstated. Office is still a good niche to consider.

Certainly, more people are working from home, and many companies are adjusting with new hybrid models involving employees coming in for one to two days a week instead of every day. Smart owners are adjusting by being more flexible and offering smaller floorplans. That said, leases and sales are still being done and there are some real bargains available for opportunistic buyers.

3. Higher interest rates are slowing the market, but there are still plenty of opportunities to find favorable deals.

Deals are now more expensive, and as rates have increased, a buyer’s margin for error has significantly shrunk. So smart planning is more important than ever. But there is still significant liquidity in the market and buyers and sellers are still making deals work, so we predict a healthy CRE market in South Florida for the coming year.

4. South Florida can be expected to fare better than much of the country as the economy faces an unpredictable 2023.

The reason is simple — population growth. That means more companies are looking for office space here. It means there’s more need for distribution centers and other industrial real estate. And it means people are continuing to buy houses and condos.

5. In an uncertain market, a long-term relationship with a CRE banker is more important than ever.

To get a favorable deal, owners and buyers alike need an advocate who takes the time to make sure a transaction will work for their client for the long term. This is best accomplished by having a long-term relationship with a banker who has significant commercial real estate experience. The more you can share about your business plan and the more you can talk about both opportunities and challenges, the more successful that relationship will be.

For the client, it’s important to take the time to build a relationship based on trust and consistency versus finding a different partner for every deal. And for the bank, finding ways to help the client in a wide variety of ways will make the relationship even more impactful.

 

Source:  SFBJ

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RE Investment Activity Is Already Rebounding From Interest Rate Hikes

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For more than a decade, the commercial real estate industry has enjoyed a zero or near zero Federal Funds Rate, and with it, a historically low cost of debt. That unprecedented run has officially come to an end, as the Federal Reserve increased its Fed Funds Rate four times in response to inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has signaled more increases to come later this year.

The Fed’s action caused the commercial real estate industry to pause and assess the new market conditions. According to Cliff Carnes, EVP at Matthews Real Estate Investment Services, that pause lasted a mere six weeks.

In this interview, Carnes explains why investment appetite has completely returned, what’s driving the price stabilization in spite of higher rates, and how the near-term outlook is even more promising, with predictions of strong real estate returns and an upward trend in pricing.

Click here and press play to hear all of Carnes’ insights on investment activity, interest rates and inflation, as well as advice for investors pursuing acquisitions in this market.

 

Source:  GlobeSt.

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Small Investor Opportunities Surface For Industrial

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Despite strong overall demand, rising interest rates are changing the fundamentals of industrial sales deals with retrading becoming ubiquitous.

Lately, 100% of the retrading activity has been for that reason, according to NAI Global brokers during the July Logistics Conference Call.

One broker said that institutional investors are putting everything on hold for 5 to 6 weeks to see how interest rates shake out, according to NAI Global.

However, the group noted that there is upside to some of the retrading activity. According to some of the broker comments, sales that are dropped during the due diligence period—and most often to institutional investors—is allowing local and usually smaller regional investors who have been “boxed out” the opportunity to buy in what has been one of the most competitive environments for industrial property sales in history.

BJ Turner, founder of Dunleer, a Los Angeles-based private real estate investment and development firm that focuses on industrial and multifamily sectors, tells GlobeSt.com that there are definitely more and more re-trades happening in the marketplace.

“Deals that were put together 45 to 60 days ago have wrapped up due diligence and now it is time to remove contingencies,” Turner said. “Their lenders are either pencils down or telling them the rate for debt financing is 100 bps to 150 bps higher, so something has to give—and in most cases, it’s the buyer saying to the seller they still like the deal, but due to the cost financing, they can’t afford to pay the same price they did before. In many cases, there is some form of a meet-in-the-middle solution that works for both the buyer and seller and deals get done. In the deals that don’t get done, there are opportunities for users to put deals into escrow they couldn’t compete on three to six months ago.”

Demand, No Less, Remains Robust

Doug Ressler of Yardi’s Commercial Edge said despite those growing weary of a possible recession around the corner, demand for industrial space remains as high as ever.

He said that in June, the average in place rents grew 4.9% year-over-year, the vacancy rate fell to 4.6% and the average cost of a new lease signed in the past 12 months was 88 cents higher per foot than the overall average.

“Supply of new industrial space cannot maintain pace with demand, a problem more pronounced in areas where geography limits the amount of land available for development,” Ressler tells GlobeSt.com.

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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Commercial Real Estate Investor Sentiment Signals A Changing Outlook

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As we round the halfway mark of 2022, dynamics are shifting in the commercial real estate investment environment.

Preliminary data from SitusAMC Insight’s second quarter 2022 institutional investor survey shows changing preferences among property segments.

Compared to the previous quarter, the percentage of investors selecting industrial as the best property type over the next year plummeted from 47 percent to 11 percent, citing major concerns that the sector is overpriced. Apartment was the most favored segment among investors; 56 percent of investors ranked apartment as the best sector, up from 21 percent last quarter.

Skyrocketing mortgage rates are putting a crimp in single-family affordability, resulting in strong demand conditions for apartments. Several investors also remarked that apartments were the best inflation hedge among the property types. Retail appears to be making a comeback, with investor preference for the sector climbing to 33 percent from just 11 percent last quarter, citing opportunity for yield plays. Investor sentiment on office, on the other hand, is extremely bearish; no investors selected it as the top property type, with the sector falling from 16 percent in first quarter.

SitusAMC is seeing these sentiment shifts play out in their client work. After so many quarters of seemingly unstoppable growth, the industrial sector is starting to show initial signs of a slowdown, even though fundamentals are still strong. While rents are still growing in most markets and investors are still anticipating widespread above-inflationary rent growth and are underwriting to these assumptions, it is unrealistic to expect another quarter of 8 percent to 12 percent rent growth. Meanwhile, the buyer pool for industrial has been shrinking since the beginning of the year, and some of the larger portfolios are not being financed or traded.

Some Value Deterioration

The value driver for apartments in the second quarter was market rents and rent growth. There is still very strong sales activity, but, as with industrial, there are fewer investors at the table when the bidding reaches the best and final round. Regardless, the fundamentals remain very strong. For the first time in several quarters, low-rise apartments are performing better than garden apartments. Suburban is still outperforming urban, but some urban locations are showing signs of growth.

Investment rates are not decreasing across the board— they are very specific to the assets and the submarket. Gateway markets are lagging but improving. New York is the leader of the gateway markets, and Chicago is seeing improvements in rent growth, which is translating into some value improvement. San Francisco is starting to produce positive indicators as well, and Boston and Seattle are experiencing growth momentum. SitusAMC Insight’s proprietary multifamily affordability indexes indicate improved affordability in gateway markets vs. affordability deterioration in non-gateway metros.

SitusAMC’s retail valuations were slightly up in second quarter. Leasing activity has picked up, with many reflecting short-term mid-pandemic leases that are expiring and being renewed. A couple of large deals involving grocery-anchored centers have signaled very strong cap rates, in the low-to-mid 4 percent range, in strong markets like San Diego and Miami. However, these rates were negotiated at the beginning of the year when the debt markets had not yet changed.

Some SitusAMC clients are repricing their assets down slightly because of the debt market environment. In addition, recent strong retail sales are unlikely to continue as inflation erodes consumers’ disposable income and redirects spending to everyday necessities like gasoline and food. Retail outlets that provide essential goods, such as neighborhood and community centers with grocery anchors, will likely maintain steady income streams. Malls could be hurt by the decline in nonessential spending.

Office values remained relatively flat in the second quarter; most of the increases in values seen were owing to contractual rent increases. Overall office values are skewed, however, by strong growth in life science. SitusAMC is seeing many tenants downsizing. Daily office occupancy is mired around 40 percent, and it might not exceed 60 percent in the long term. There has been a flight to quality as employers try to attract top talent during a tight labor market.

On the bright side, near-term market rent growth has steadily increased over the past year, however, and is getting closer to the standard 3 percent. The strongest growth markets continue to be in the Sun Belt and the suburbs, which are doing better than CBD and gateway markets, but rents are increasing in those areas, as well. There have also been a lot of early renewals—near 10 percent, the highest level since 2015—though this is partly due to leases that expired during the pandemic and were renewed on a short-term basis.

 

Source: Commercial Property Executive

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Commercial Real Estate—Buy, Sell Or Hold?

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The commercial real estate market was beaten, broken and left for dead by Covid-19 in 2020.

It roared back to life in 2021 with record-breaking sales of $809 billion, but like cops pulling up to a rowdy frat house all-nighter, the arrival of unrestrained inflation and soaring interest rates may signal the party’s over. That has many real estate investors at a strategic crossroads wondering, “do I buy, sell or hold?”

Privately owned commercial real estate has historically offered a strong hedge against inflation. The owners of properties with short-term leases such as apartments, self-storage, and manufactured home communities can quickly raise rents to match inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. That’s a significant advantage as the CPI topped 8% in March and April, reaching 8.6% in May, the highest rate since 1981. Then, like today, inflation was driven by a dramatic spike in oil and gas prices and an unrestrained Treasury flooding the economy with money.

In 1980, newly installed Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker responded by strangling the flow of currency to such an extent that in December 1981, mortgage rates hit 20%. Inflation quickly declined, but at a cost of 10.8% unemployment, a decline of 3% in GDP, and not one but two recessions. While inflation is the friend of many landlords, recession is not, and the commercial real estate business began a decade-long decline.

A recession has followed every sharp increase in inflation over the past 75 years, and the current gravity-defying trend shows no sign of fading. The Producer Index – what manufacturers pay for raw materials – rose .08% in May, doubling the .04% increase in April, for an annual rate of 10.8%. Those costs will be passed on to the consumer, driving the CPI yet higher. Gas is over five dollars, and diesel is flirting with six. Given that sudden spikes in energy costs preceded six of the last seven recessions, and the Commerce Department reporting an unexpected decline in retail sales in May, another recession seems inevitable.

Investment real estate performance and GDP rise and fall together. A weak economy creates a decline in business and consumer spending, limiting the ability of landlords to raise rents. Pandemic resistant, “essential businesses” like Dollar General and Walgreens have been highly favored by investors. However, with leases holding their rents flat for 10-15 years, landlords will be losing money every year, as will big-box retail and office building owners with long-term leases not indexed to CPI. The Fed’s more aggressive monetary policy will create higher long-term interest rates, provoking a recession and stricter commercial lending requirements. Higher rates and loan equity requirements result in lower returns, causing investors to retreat and property values to fall. For investors with such assets who are alarmed by a disintegrating economy and contemplating a sale, it may be best to hold and wait for the inevitable recovery.

The cycle of decline and recovery often occurs over a decade or more. Property owners under 50 can afford to wait for the next upcycle if the market sees a significant correction. Commercial real estate always trends up over decades, and for 25 years has outperformed the S&P 500 Index, with average annualized returns of 10.3% and 9.6%, respectively. And, unlike stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrency, real estate has never been worth zero. For those younger investors, this may be the right time to buy.

“While rates are being managed higher as a deterrent to inflation, they are still historically low. Buyers who can lock in fixed rate debt on income property at current rates of 5.5% to 5.6% today will be winners as these rates are likely to be the lowest they may ever see,” said TowneBank Commercial Mortgage President, David Beatty.

Named a “Top Ten US Bank” by Forbes in 2022, TowneBank is a leading commercial real estate lender in Virginia and North Carolina.

What’s the case for selling in the current market? Few people doubt that commercial real estate values have reached a cyclical peak after a 12-year bull run. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen recently expressed concern to the US Senate Banking committee that banks and non-bank lenders such as insurance companies and hedge funds maybe be overleveraged at a time of rising interest rates. Knowing cash is king, there is anecdotal evidence that portfolio owners are choosing to boost liquidity with strategic dispositions at apex pricing. In what may be a record-breaking sale for a single such property, an Arizona company paid $363 million for Jamaica Bay, a manufactured home community in Fort Myers, Florida.

Many investors anticipate a wave of defaults when acquisitions at aggressive pre-COVID prices can’t cover the debt service when their loans soon reset at higher rates. When real estate crashed in 1973, legendary investor Sam “Gravedancer” Zell, the father of the modern REIT, picked up dozens of high-quality apartment buildings at a fraction of replacement cost. Zell used the massive cash flow from those assets to buy office buildings at 50 cents on the dollar when the real estate market crashed again in the 1980s, becoming a billionaire. Today, the post-COVID “hybrid working” trend is driving tenants from center city office buildings to the more affordable suburbs. Those tenants who remain are demanding aggressive rent concessions to stay.

Foreshadowing a coming market correction are dozens of “distressed” real estate funds, amassing billions of dollars. Global investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Co. L.P. has in 36 months attracted $11billion in investment to its “distressed debt and special situations” platform. Investors are betting on a spike in real estate loan defaults, with banks forced to sell their debt at deep discounts to maintain FDIC liquidity requirements.

What about the smaller investor or owner/user? If you’re a doctor over 60 wanting to cash out the equity in your medical office building to facilitate a more comfortable retirement, now may be the time to sell and lease back. The demand for these properties is ceaseless due to their resilience during economic slumps. Montecito Medical is one of the nation’s largest privately held companies specializing in healthcare-related real estate acquisitions and a leader in sale and leaseback transactions. Since inception in 2004, Montecito has closed healthcare real estate transactions of over $5 billion.

“With the population of Americans over 65 projected to more than double by 2040, medical office real estate fundamentals are highly secure. That makes this category recession-resistant and a haven for capital at times when other commercial real estate sectors may be struggling. This was proven in both the Great Recession of 2008 and again during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Chip Conk, chief executive officer of Montecito. “We built our entire business around medical office and the market has validated that strategy over and over. We remain as bullish as ever on this sector.”

Sale-leasebacks are increasingly common in other asset categories such as industrial real estate, perhaps the hottest commercial real estate category of all.

Owners with management-intensive assets like single-family rentals, manufactured home communities, and small apartment buildings may want to relax, travel, and otherwise enjoy the result of decades of hard work. They can use IRS Code Section 1031 to trade into management-free “absolute net,” single-tenant retail, enjoying historically low interest rates, avoiding capital gains and pocketing tax-free cash.

Being sensitive to economic cycles when buying, selling or hanging on is essential for success in commercial real estate.

 

Source: Forbes

 

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