Wallace Property Buys Apartments in Boston
Wallace Property Co. has acquired two properties in Roxbury, Mass., a neighborhood of Boston. All together the properties include 12 units, and Wallace says it’s going to renovate all of them.
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
Boston—Wallace Property Co. has acquired two properties in Roxbury, Mass., a neighborhood of Boston. All together the properties include 12 units, and Wallace says it’s going to renovate all of them.
One of the acquisitions is 182-184 Walnut Ave., a six-unit brick structure that the company bought for $750,000. The other is 50-52 Towsend St., another six-unit structure that Wallace paid $645,000.
According to Robert Wallace, president of Wallace, both of the properties need full renovation. The company’s basic strategy is to seek value-add apartments and turn them around, he says, and he’ll continue looking for properties in various Boston locations. Wallace currently owns 200 apartment units and more than 200,000 square feet of commercial real estate in New England.
Boston is an example of a strong multifamily market, though supply is chasing demand pretty vigorously. At the end of 2013, vacancies marketwide were a tight 3.7 percent, according to investment specialist Marcus & Millichap, but the company predict that the rate will rise to 4.2 percent by the end of this year.
That’s because new units are coming on line at a fairly brisk pace. This year, developers will complete 5,600 new units in greater Boston, up from 4,200 units in 2013. There will be rent growth this year of about 2 percent, Marcus & Millichap predicts, down from 3.4 percent during 2013.