So is this a trend? As reported in Commercial Property News (CPN) by Scott Baltic, although not necessarily a trend just yet, it is likely more than coincidence that the Kolter Group of West Palm Beach, Fla., is the second largely commercial real estate company in the past couple of weeks to announce a big financial commitment to the distressed residential market.

Kolter and Och-Ziff Capital Management Group L.L.C., New York, – a leading global institutional alternative asset management firm, with about $30 billion of assets under management as of late 2007 — announced the formation of a $1 billion joint venture that will target residential properties in the Southeast that are at any stage of development.  Kolter and Och-Ziff Capital Management Groups strategy encompasses the full range of residential property: raw land, entitled lots, partially developed communities, complete single family/condo inventory, etc.

Recently, Brookwood Financial Partners L.P., of Beverly, Mass., also announced that one of its affiliates had made the first purchase under a new strategy of acquiring finished residential lots. The acquisition covered 214 finished lots in a development in Lehigh Acres,

Apparently, the driving force for this movement is that the commercial sector doesn’t necessarily offer more opportunity, since discounting is currently heavier on the residential side, largely because of the drop-off in demand, than it is on the commercial side.

Tags: Residential Real Estate Investment

Posted in Home Builders, Residential Real Estate, Developers, Market Trending, Commercial Real Estate | No Comments