Camden Fund Picks Up Two Properties, Wants More
Houston--Camden Multifamily Value Add fund has made its first apartment property purchases in more than two years with the acquisition of the 306-unit Camden Yorktown complex in Houston and the 110-unit Camden Ivy Hall property in Atlanta.
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
Houston–Camden Multifamily Value Add fund has made its first apartment property purchases in more than two years with the acquisition of the 306-unit Camden Yorktown complex in Houston and the 110-unit Camden Ivy Hall property in Atlanta. The fund paid about $24 million and $16 million for the properties, respectively.
According to Houston-based fund, which is 80 percent owned by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Camden Yorktown will need management changes going forward. It traded at a cap rate of 5.75 percent.
As for Ivy Hall, it was a condo project that didn’t jell because of the onset of hard times. But the developer did manage to complete about two-thirds of the property before work on it stopped. The cap rate in this deal was 7 percent.
“Over the last 12 months, borrowing rates have compressed more than cap rates, leading to an environment where actual cash-on-cash returns are higher on new acquisitions,” Laurie Baker, vice president of fund and asset management of Camden Property Trust, which is the manager of the Value Add fund, tells MHN.
Moreover, favorable cap rates aren’t the only reasons to make acquisitions now, according to the REIT. Overall, Atlanta and Houston are good apartment markets, with both expected to experience reasonably strong population and job growth in the coming years.
Camden has other properties in its sights for acquisition as well. Prospective acquisitions worth about $225 million are scattered in markets such as Denver, Orlando, Tampa and various Texas metro markets.
