Here're the Six Priciest Apartments Sold in 2023

The overall apartment sales volume in 2023 was down 61% year-over-year. Despite the rising cost of debt and economic uncertainty, six apartment communities changed hands for over $200 million during the year, according to RealPage.

The average price per unit was also down, registering at $204,216 in 2023, off 13% year-over-year. Apartment cap rates during 2023 remained the lowest among major property types.

This group represented every region of the country. All told, more than 5,400 apartment properties changed hands at a value of $119 billion during 2023, according to data from MSCI Real Capital Analytics.

This activity was well below the record-setting sales that averaged $332 billion per year in 2021 and 2022 when a total of about 25,000 properties changed hands as the result of pent-up demand following the onset of the pandemic.

It also was well below the $169 billion annual average logged during the five years leading up to the pandemic (2015-2019).

While that was the lowest level since 2020, it was well above the per-unit pricing from 2015 to 2019 which averaged $151,000. Meanwhile, cap rates for apartment transactions in 2023 were up 60 basis points (bps) year-over-year, averaging 5.3%. That was the highest cap rate in four years.

The largest single-asset apartment transaction during 2023 was the sale of Solow Tower Apartments in New York. In April, Manhattan-based real estate investor Black Spruce Management acquired a 45-story residential tower in Manhattan’s Upper East Side for $403 million or roughly $1.25 million per unit.

Denver-based Apartment Income REIT Corp. (AIR Communities) purchased the 495-unit Southgate Towers apartment community In January in Miami from Virginia-based Gumenick Properties for approximately $241 million. It was the second-largest single-asset apartment transaction during 2023, going for around $487,900 per unit.

Washington, DC, was home to the third-largest transaction. At the end of August, Carr Properties sold The Elm on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, Md., to Denver-based Apartment Income REIT Corp. (AIR Communities) for $220 million or roughly $515,600 per unit. It’s a two-tower community with 456 units.

Irvine, CA-based Advanced Real Estate in December spent $232 million or roughly $325,000 per unit for the 714-unit community, Camden Martinique, in Anaheim. The four-story development off Pinecreek Drive in Costa Mesa was built in 1986. Advanced Real Estate plans to invest $45 million to remodel it.

In August, a joint venture between California-based Ares Management and locally based F&F Realty sold a 45-story apartment tower in Chicago to Pontegadea, a Spain-based real estate company. It traded for nearly $232 million or roughly $471,000 per unit for the 492-unit property. It is Chicago’s tallest building west of the Kennedy Expressway.

Property Reserve Inc. of Salt Lake City acquired the 300-unit Palisade apartment community in early December for $203 million. Built in 2019, the 23-story building on Lombard Place in San Diego’s La Jolla/University City submarket contains 300 apartment homes. The deal comes to nearly $677,000 per unit.