CHICAGO—HAS Capital, LLC, a Chicago-based real estate investment firm, has just acquired interests in select ABS structured financings and manufactured housing related assets from affiliates of Origen Financial, Inc. with a current underlying value of $412 million. The acquisition represents substantially all of Origen's manufactured housing assets. HAS co-invested with what it calls "a leading credit oriented investment manager which holds a majority stake in the ownership entity."
J. Peter Scherer, managing director, vice chairman, HAS Capital, tells GlobeSt.com that one of the firm's overall goals is to help “reopen this asset class to the capital markets.”
Manufactured housing “has performed extremely well,” even during the extended downturn, adds Stephen A. Wheeler, managing director and chairman. And “from a macro perspective we see the demand continuing to increase.”
The manufactured housing sector has played a key role in providing affordable housing for retired or older consumers, especially in warm-weather states such as CA, TX and FL, he points out, and the aging of the US population, coupled with an increase in the price spread between manufactured housing and other options, should “bring greater market share to this asset class.” Although the underlying assets in this transaction are geographically diverse, there are heavy concentrations in CA, TX and FL.
But the strong demand for this asset class exceeds the amount of capital currently available, Wheeler adds. The GSEs do not serve manufactured housing, for example, and in 2011, under the provisions of the Dodd-Frank reforms, the sector was subjected to the same rules as other residential mortgages.
Still, growing comfort with the new rules and the persistent demand is bringing lenders back to the sector, he says. Furthermore, “the transaction comes at a pivotal moment for the manufactured housing asset class as institutional investors move closer to re-establishing manufactured housing home mortgages as an attractive investment product in the capital markets.”
“Not only does this transaction provide the springboard for our re-entry into consumer home financing,” Scherer adds, “but it also brings new capital to finance new and pre-owned homes owned by manufactured home community operators.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
