Livingston, N.J., January 22, 2019 – With continued headwinds in the single-family homes market and an uncertain economic and political environment keeping renters at bay, robust demand for apartment investment assets in 2018 have paved the path for 2019, according to Gebroe-Hammer Associates. The New Jersey-based firm, which is the top multi-family brokerage firm throughout the New Jersey, New York State and Greater Philadelphia Metro corridor, closed out 2018 with over $1.1 billion in total transactions – a positive indicator of favorable conditions in the next 12 months.
“Since Gebroe-Hammer’s primary focus is multi-family property sales, these totals are solely attributed to apartment buildings that run the full spectrum of asset classes – from Class-A trophy buildings to value-add Class B/C midrise properties and garden communities poised for capital improvements, unit renovations and repositioning,” said Ken Uranowitz, Gebroe-Hammer president, who joined the firm at its inception in 1975. “No other firm – regional or national – within our submarkets can even come close to these benchmarks, which exclude office, industrial, retail properties and leasing activity.”
During the month of December alone, Gebroe-Hammer arranged 14 trades valued in excess of $114.21M encompassing 1,076 units. These spanned North and Central Jersey’s Bergen, Hudson, Essex, Union and Monmouth counties (9 deals/472 units/$58.5M) as well as Greater Philadelphia/South Jersey (5 deals/605 units/$55.71M).
In addition to arranging sales involving more than 8,200 units in 2018, Gebroe-Hammer was the only Northeast firm named among the “Top Multi-Family Influencers” in the nation for its consistent sales performance. Gebroe-Hammer exceeded its record-breaking 2015 and 2016 transaction benchmarks in 2017 by recording four separate sales exceeding $100M each. Among these was one of the nation’s top-20 single-asset multi-family deals of the year.
“Our brokerage professionals are deeply entrenched in the tri-state area’s ever-evolving multi-family investment markets. As a result, our area expertise, coupled with an expanding client base and services, has grown at a pace commensurate with the surging development and gentrification of urban and suburban municipalities during the past decade,” said Uranowitz.
According to Reis, the North Jersey, Central Jersey and Greater Philadelphia metros have experienced consistent rent increases over the past 12 months of +5.5%, +2.5% and +6.9%, respectively. Philadelphia was a leader in terms of effective rent growth nationwide.
Since 1975, Gebroe-Hammer’s brokerage activities have concentrated on all multi-family types, from high-rise to garden-apartment properties. In addition to its focus on apartment buildings, Gebroe-Hammer markets mixed-use and free-standing office and retail properties. Widely recognized for its consistent sales performance, the firm is a 14-time CoStar Power Broker.