Who Owns all the Apartment Buildings?

Question

Somethings been puzzling me lately. When I walk out into the street, I'll see a ton of 100+ unit apartments or condos, and I've been wondering who owns them.

There are apartments like this all throughout the country, and surely they're not all owned by syndicators. I imagine syndicators are usually involved with a building throughout the rehab proccess, and then sell at a profit. Does anyone know who owns most apartment buildings and who buys the expensive apartment buildings after rehab?

Michael Bishop · Answer

@Shafi Noss the complete answer to this question is longer than I care to type, and also more detailed than I probably know. But, at a high level, new (bigger, 100+) apartment buildings are put up by big developers, backed by their own money, banks, ultra high net worth individuals, etc. There are also large companies out there that own the entire process, from development all the way through property management, that build to hold and manage long term. In terms of who buys from syndicators, generally institutional money like life insurance companies, REITs, family offices, or potentially other syndicators if the initial syndicators plan is to prove the value-add and leave some meat on the bone for the next group.

Charles Carillo · Answer

@Shafi Noss

Usually the exit strategy for institutional grade properties is selling to investors that are not looking for value-add but looking for a yield play; among others, life insurance companies purchase these types of properties.

Rebecca Knox · Answer

I would take a look at the brokers involved in the sales and the current property managers and reach out to the most popular ones. Most of the big buildings have a corporate veil that's not as easy to find the decision maker but if you can connect with the person most likely to know when a sale will happen (broker or PM), you have a better shot to the finish line.

Calvin Ozanick · Answer

You can look up in many places who owns specific properties. If you want to get in on the action, you may need to do a little digging. Use public tax records to get name and billing information and begin looking further. There is a 30 unit here in Beloit, Wisconsin that I used this exact method to do some digging and get the information I was looking for.

Who Owns all the Apartment Buildings?

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