Multifamily’s Staggering Liquidity

The apartment market is relaxing in a bathtub full of money these days (don’t be jealous), so we’ve organized a special summit on April 8 to find out what's next. One hugely popular form of financing is bridge lending, Greystone managing director Jef Elm (a panelist, snapped on a recent golf trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland) tells us. You can tell it's a real pic—and not April Fools'—because it looks windy. His team expects to fund between $750M and $1B of bridge loans this year, with transactions ranging from $4M to $100M. They’re typically for value-add acquisitions, he says. It could be an investor who doesn’t want permanent debt until they put in a couple years increasing the property’s value, or someone seeking a bridge to an FHA loan (it's a quick initial close, then allows for up to 36 months to transition to an FHA permanent loan).

Another bridge loan contender is an investor seeking to pay off an existing bank loan to free up his existing bank lines to use on other deals. Jef’s seeing most activity from veteran multifamily players, as the market is so competitive it’s tough for new entrants to win bids. Chicago’s considered a healthy market in the national landscape, he says, though the concern always remains over absorption of new supply and continued local job growth. A blip in the economy could make oversupply a huge issue, Jef points out. Outside of the office, his goal is to play all of the Top 100 golf courses in the US. (He’s only played 22, so there’s a lot of teeing off left to do.)