Gebroe-Hammer Associates recently brokered the $18.225 million sale of Maybrook Plaza Apartments in Maywood, one of more than 100 deals closed this year by the firm. — Courtesy: Gebroe-Hammer Associates
By Joshua Burd
Gebroe-Hammer Associates has brokered more than 100 multifamily deals totaling some $1.4 billion in value through the first three quarters of 2016, the firm announced.
All told, the Livingston-based real estate investment brokerage said it closed 108 deals year-to-date encompassing 9,664 units. In Q3, its brokers arranged $402.29 million in sales.
Its Q3 deal volume includes highest-price-per-unit milestones in areas such as West New York and Union City, Gebroe-Hammer said in a news release. The firm closed 10 separate transactions in the county during the three-month period.
“Just when you think multifamily investments and apartment rentals may have reached their peak, you look at the numbers — which speak for themselves — and are struck by asking rents, occupancies and per-unit pricing that continues to trend upward,” Ken Uranowitz, the firm’s president, said in a prepared statement. “Within multifamily investing, there is one constant theme — people will always need a place to live.
“Apartment-rental properties have — and will continue – to fill this basic need for every population demographic, from the working-class to affluent professionals.”
The brokerage also noted that the adjacent transit-centric counties of Union and Essex also are a focus of investment activity. David Oropeza, managing director and the firm’s urban market expert, said one particular area of “heightened interest” is East Orange, where investors “are changing the property landscape by rehabbing and renovating prime-location buildings in order to attract a tenant base of young professionals.”
Gebroe-Hammer also touted activity in high-barrier-to-entry suburbs with mid- to high-rise and garden-style properties. During Q3, the firm’s sales were concentrated in markets such as Bergen and Passaic counties and in Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia and Delaware counties.
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The firm said supply constraints continue to drive demand in those areas. That’s also the case in Central Jersey, where it recently brokered the sale of 1,200 units across four counties.
“Suburban locales have enduring investment appeal throughout economic peaks and valleys, and even more so now at a time when the job market has been holding steady,” Managing Director Joseph Brecher said. “For this reason, supply is scarce and demand is at historic levels.
“These properties thrive over the long term because of their proximity to major metro centers and access to mass transit, both of which appeal to a mixed tenant pool of families and single millennials alike.”
