Dive Brief:
- Boston-based Boston Financial led the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Top 10 apartment syndicators list with a portfolio size of 167,957 — an almost 10,000 decline from the year before.
- Greenwich, Connecticut-based The Richman Group Affordable Housing Corp.’s portfolio gained almost 5,000 units as it grew to 166,649 apartments — enough to claim the No. 2 spot on the list. St. Petersburg, Florida-based Raymond James Affordable Housing Investments sits at the No. 3 slot after increasing its portfolio size by more than 10,000 units to 152,265 apartments.
- Portland, Oregon-based PNC Real Estate took the No. 4 slot despite its portfolio declining almost 5,000 units to 135,041 apartments. The fifth slot is held by Chicago-based National Equity Fund with 123,850 apartments — an almost 8,000 unit increase from the year before.
Dive Insight:
The remainder of NMHC’s top 10 list included:
- No. 6 Columbia, Maryland-based Enterprise Housing Credit Investments with 115,212 units.
- No 7. New York City-based Hudson Housing Capital with 70,452 units.
- No. 8 Woodland Hills, California-based Alliant Capital, a Walker & Dunlap Co., with 69,410 units.
- No. 9 Irvine, California-based WNC with 67,435 units.
- No. 10 Encino, California, based Hunt Capital Partners with 63,986 units.
Six of the top 10 syndicators saw their portfolios expand in 2022. Still, the tax credit market is facing some headwinds. “Last year, the industry lost 12.5% of credits because Congress let the allocation expansion expire,” Dudley Benoit, an executive vice president at Alliant Capital, told Multifamily Dive.
The situation probably won’t improve too much this year, according to Benoit. “Expect portfolios to stay flat to decreasing as deals are still facing difficulty in penciling,” he said.
For developers looking to build affordable housing using tax credits, volatility in the space doesn’t bode well for helping to solve the housing crisis.
“The 9% credits have always been very, very competitive,” Alliant Strategic Development founder and CEO Eddie Lorin told Multifamily Dive. “The 4% credit — all of a sudden in the last three years — has become extremely competitive as well.”
That leaves developers competing for a second round of credits. Without elected officials stepping in, Lorin doesn’t see the situation getting better. “Probably more challenging is the lack of political will to allocate more tax credit dollars for all projects and make the necessary changes to the code to allow more credits,” he said.
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