U.S. apartment landlords are facing more than $1.8 trillion in debt coming due over the next decade, with nearly $300 billion maturing this year alone, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data cited by WSJ. About $757 billion of those loans mature from 2026 through 2028, including another $223 billion in 2027, and landlords are now refinancing at roughly twice the rates available five years ago. Apartment mortgage rates fell to around 3% in 2020 and 2021, fueling investment and a construction boom across the Sunbelt in markets including Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta and Austin, and some landlords are now selling at losses, returning buildings to lenders or restructuring their balance sheets. Bain Capital real estate head Ryan Cotton said lenders have gotten a lot more aggressive as distress appears, while TruAmerica Multifamily Investments CEO Bob Hart told WSJ one of his properties would need refinancing from 3.5% to about 6% and that he was considering selling rather than making a large additional payment. Blackstone defaulted in June on a $90 million loan tied to a Northern Dallas apartment building, multifamily loan delinquency in commercial mortgage-backed securities reached 7.1%, and apartment values fell about 3.5% in the past month and remain more than 20% below their 2022 peak. Distressed-property buyers are becoming more active, with Cityview buying directly from lenders that have taken control of properties and getting roughly a 40% discount on a newly renovated Dallas-area apartment complex that was foreclosed on.
Blackstone Group Inc