Lion Real Estate Makes Second Purchase in Houston
White Oak Partners sold the community.
Lion Real Estate Group has acquired the Villages of Briar Forest, a 241-unit apartment community in Houston for approximately $29 million, according to Yardi Matrix. The seller was White Oak Partners.
The deal is Lion’s second acquisition in the Houston market and eighth acquisition in its LREG Multifamily Fund III. Thomas Alleman in Newmark’s Houston office brokered the transaction, which was financed by Newmark’s Los Angeles debt team.
Property history
Rents at the property have seen a sizable increase in recent years, according to Yardi Matrix data. In 2021, rents averaged $1,291 a month; by 2025, that average was $1,422 a month, though that was slightly less than in 2024.
The Villages of Briar Forest, originally built in 1999, is 94 percent occupied, according to the same data. The property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 690 to 1,256 square feet. Common-area amenities include two pools, a fitness center, a sauna and a clubhouse.
Some of the units have already undergone a partial renovation, while others have been fully revamped. Lion plans to continue upgrading those units with the addition of quartz countertops and vinyl plank flooring as well as upgraded cabinetry and lighting packages. The already-renovated units will see minor upgrades.
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The community is located at 14504 Briar Forest Dr. in West Houston. Local amenities include the nearby George Bush Park, Noble Road Trail, Terry Hersey Park and hiking and biking trails along Buffalo Bayou.
Dallas-based Lion now owns more than 6,800 units nationwide, and the company says that it expects to add another six or seven assets in the Sun Belt and Southeast through its LREG Multifamily Fund III. That vehicle currently has a portfolio of eight assets.
Houston’s supply growth slows
Multifamily deliveries totaled 15,578 units in the first 10 months of 2024, with 28,752 units underway at that moment, according to Yardi Matrix. Even so, that represented a drop in new construction of roughly half of the volume in the same period in 2023.
Investment sales activity in the market amounted to about $1.8 billion over the same period, Yardi Matrix reported, for a price per-unit that rose 12.1 percent year-to-date, to $124,966. Even so, that was well behind the $190,509 U.S. average.
Despite significant growth in supply in Houston recently, demand has kept pace, keeping advertised asking rents, averaging $1,360, flat through October on a trailing three-month basis. Also, occupancy rates in Houston multifamily have barely budged, with the average rate in stabilized assets down just 10 basis points year-over-year in October, to 92.8 percent.
