Apartments Hit High Gear, But Will the Engine Overheat?

LOS ANGELES-The apartment market has hit high gear, fueled by strong demand and cheap debt, but some in the industry question if the sector might be going too fast for conditions. Those were some of the sentiments expressed by brokers, lenders, receivers and other panelists at Thursday’s RealShare Apartments 2011, which brought out more than 1,400 industry leaders to the all-day conference and networking event in Downtown Los Angeles.

Russ Appel, president of the Praedium Group LLC, cited the strong demand and the stable fundamentals of the apartment market, calling it “probably the only real estate sector where you see this stability.” Appel joined other speakers including moderator Marc Renard, executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield, on a panel titled: “Switching to High Gear: Multifamily Investment Heats Up.” The RealShare Conference Series is produced by ALM‘s Real Estate Media Group, which also publishes Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com.