ORLANDO—This morning, we brought you an examination of how some of then nation's biggest institutional players feel about the competitive marketplace for multifamily investment. In a continuation of that discussion, executives from Blackstone, AIG, Starwood Capital share their thoughts on financing conditions and their outlook for the sector. The dialogue was part of an informative session held here at the NMHC's 2016 Apartment Strategies Outlook Conference this week moderated by Real Capital Analytics' founder and CEO, Bob White, and titled, "Awash in Capital: The Impact of Global Investment on the US Market."

On the financing front, creativity may be a hot area of discussion for many borrowers these days, but for the major institutional players it runs counter to their strategies. Getting creative, AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp.'s managing director, Jeff Daniels said, is "where you run into trouble. We stick to our core values all the way through the cycle, and it's worked historically." Any deviations from the norm are in the form of opportunities, such as entering strong secondary or tertiary markets.

To maintain maximum flexibility, Blackstone Group likes to use floating-rate debt, since that allows the firm to sell assets throughout the hold period without prepayment penalties. For its recent $2-billion portfolio buy from Greystar, said principal Olivia John, it split up the financing between agency and balance sheet, though the agencies typically "aren't super aggressive on the types of deals that we're doing."