Multifamily 2018 outlook: Developers tap the brakes, but will maintain historic pace

Development will play a key role in the U.S. multifamily market in 2018. Developers are poised to register the second-highest annual completions count of this cycle, with as many as 258,000 units delivered. This is based on 62 markets tracked by CBRE Econometric Advisors.

This would be down by 9.2% from 2017’s cycle peak, projected at 284,000. Apartment starts began to slow in 2017, so the multifamily market will get a reprieve from new supply by late 2018 and throughout 2019.

Starts will continue to slow in 2018, as banks have scaled back development lending over the past two years. While other sources of development capital have emerged (e.g., debt funds) or reemerged (e.g., HUD financing), the climate for financing new development should remain more conservative, and debt capital costs more expensive.

For more, download CBRE’s free 2018 Multifamily Outlook report (registration required).

As of December 2017, nearly 23% of all units under construction in U.S. markets are in urban cores. In the long term, urban core multifamily will perform well, but for the short term, market statistics indicate that the best development opportunities are in the suburbs.

Suburban markets have seen the highest rent growth rate over the past two years.

The Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team announced that it has reached an agreement with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County on a $6.5 billion, 86-acre mixed-use development that will include a new 30,000-seat ballpark and an array of office, housing, hotel, retail, and restaurant space totaling 8 million sf.

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NIST investigation of Champlain Towers South collapse indicates no sinkhole

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MFPRO+ Research | Sep 11, 2023

Conversions of multifamily dwellings to ‘mansions’ leading to dwindling affordable stock

Small multifamily homes have historically provided inexpensive housing for renters and buyers, but developers have converted many of them in recent decades into larger, single-family units. This has worsened the affordable housing crisis, say researchers.

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Adaptive Reuse | Aug 31, 2023

New York City creates team to accelerate office-to-residential conversions

New York City has a new Office Conversion Accelerator Team that provides a single point of contact within city government to help speed adaptive reuse projects. Projects that create 50 or more housing units from office buildings are eligible for this new program.