News
Multifamily: Obsolete And Loving It
November 15, 2012
| The conventional wisdom may be wrong again. All the multifamily talk has been about demand, but the sector’s stunning fundamentals owe quite a bit to supply, too, as functionally obsolete stock comes off the market. That’s according to Pinnacle Management prez Rick Graf, who’s speaking at our first nationalBisnow Multifamily Annual Conference in DC on Monday and Tuesday. Keep reading to see what makes an apartment obsolete. | |
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| The old stock can only raise rents so much before renters just won’t pay and it starts to make sense to replace the property. So even if the location is great, two- or three-bedroom units with one bathroom (popular in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s) just don't cut it anymore. Baths and kitchens, Rick says, are the rooms where obsolescence—and avocado tiles—comes into play the most. This decreasing inventory then creates an even larger vacuum for apartment investors and developers to fill in the face of surging demand. His take: despite concerns about overbuilding in certain areas, national multifamily is in the early stages of a five- to eight-year healthy run. (Our next baby boom won't be from soldiers; it'll just be from people looking to use all those baths.) Sign up now to hear more from Rick and over 30 other speakers at DC's JW Marriott Nov. 19 and 20. Sign up now! | |
