Commercial Real Estate: Multifamily interest is ‘at a fever pitch’ | Jax Daily Record | Jacksonville Daily Record

Beth McCandry

As commercial real estate investors start looking to Florida, Jacksonville is increasingly high on their multi-family investment list, said Joe Ayers, vice president of CBRE.

“We’re only seeing very good fundamentals in Jacksonville and several other Florida markets,” said Ayers.

“We weren’t very concerned about running COVID in an industry that, like some of our other Florida metros, was badly affected. That is very important. “

CBRE Vice President Joe Ayers.

Ayers and CBRE Vice President Cliff Taylor jointly lead CBRE’s Jacksonville multi-family investment sales team.

They sold more than $ 1.4 billion in transactions in 2020, slightly more than in 2019.

“Interest in apartment buildings is currently at a peak,” said Ayers.

With COVID slowing revenue and calls in the second and third quarters, the fourth quarter accounted for more than half of the annual volume.

Revenue was only $ 165 million for the third quarter, compared to $ 446 million for the same period in 2019.

CBRE Vice President Cliff Taylor

“We saw a sharp decline in the third quarter,” said Taylor. By the end of summer, “You started getting a lot of deal flow going, and a lot of deals were closed in this fourth quarter.”

Ayers and Taylor said that when they work with clients, they focus on the details of the deal and sell the asset and Jacksonville to the buyer.

Taylor said the special attention to detail made the difference between “very good prices and good prices”. The two teamed up at CBRE in 2017.

“People who are already looking to invest are very engaged at this level and are always excited about a particular opportunity,” said Taylor.

The Ayers and Taylor team expects more favorable conditions in the multi-family market by 2021, as long as there is no “groundbreaking event in the world”.

“We have an amazing amount of capital looking for an apartment building in the state of Florida that relies on population growth, employment growth and the people who just can’t find enough products,” said Taylor.

“That would lead you to believe that tax rates will continue to compress, business volumes will continue to grow, and demand will outpace supply.”