Tax Credit Group of Marcus & Millichap (TCG) has reached the milestone of closing $5 billion in low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) property sales.
The team has arranged 697 transactions with 103,768 units since 2001.
Reaching $5 billion in transaction volume is “a marker of the maturation of the LIHTC multifamily market as an increasing number of assets have now completed a full investment cycle from construction through disposition—TCG has been a driving force behind the evolution of the LIHTC market,” says Robert Sheppard, executive director of TCG.
TCG marked $3 billion in transaction sales in March 2012. In 2013, the group brokered the sale of 152 LIHTC assets with 21,154 units valued at more than $1 billion.
Historically, about 80 percent of the buyers have acquired LIHTC properties for cash flow versus resyndication, according to Sheppard.
The buyers will invest in the properties, often between $3,000 and $8,000 per unit, and continue to operate the developments as affordable housing. They may increase the cash flow at these properties by reducing expenses, and, in some cases, they increase rents while staying within the affordable housing program limits.
Many of the cash-flow oriented buyers see LIHTC properties as an alternative to market-rate properties, Sheppard says, noting that affordable housing can be more stable and less volatile than the market-rate industry.
