The chief executive of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world's largest real estate companies, said he sees the best investing opportunities since 2009.
In his quarterly letter to shareholders, CEO Bruce Flatt said market conditions these days with high interest rates can benefit managers with experience, access to large-scale capital and strong lender relationships.
"Since the global financial crisis in 2009, we don't believe there has been a more fruitful environment to execute our longstanding investment strategy: buy high-quality assets for value when their financial structures are compromised and drive upside through active asset management," said Flatt. "Our hands-on approach gives us control over investment outcomes through cycles and is well-suited for today's environment."
Interest rate increases over the past year in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom have led to higher financing costs and forced many would-be buyers to the sidelines, leaving properties available. Industry executives including those at private equity giant TPG Inc., moving toward closing on its $2.7 billion acquisition of Angelo Gordon, are seeking a wide range of would-be real estate investments in what they call favorable investing conditions.
Brookfield Asset Management has acquired, since it began investing for clients in the early 2000s, almost US$100 billion of properties during various business cycles and in nearly every real estate sector and strategy, with overall average 20% annualized gross returns, Flatt said.
Brookfield, with about US$850 billion in total assets under management and operating in 30 countries, also has divisions dedicated to infrastructure, private equity, renewable power, credit and insurance.
The company recently began fundraising for its fifth vintage opportunistic real estate fund.
"Historically, many of the substantial gains in real estate were made during periods of capital scarcity, so we are confident that investors will look to deploy meaningful amounts of capital to opportunistic real estate strategies in order to take advantage of the stress in the market, which is our sweet spot. As the funding markets turn, we expect to be a beneficiary," said Flatt in the letter.
Solid Fundamentals
The chief executive said despite challenges, most real estate fundamentals are strong and pointed to multifamily rents in the United States being up 15% year over year, premier office rents at all-time highs and rents for logistics properties growing by an average of 11%.
"Hotel rooms are full, with (average daily rates) ahead of pre-pandemic levels, and high-quality retail centers hit record sales in 2022," said Flatt.
The CEO noted supply issues that include land constraints, the high cost of materials and scarce financing, which he predicted will keep new commercial real estate supply to a minimum, allowing continued rent growth that often outpaces inflation.
He said Brookfield achieved double-digit rent growth and 2.4 million square feet of leasing year-to-date across its logistics portfolio in the United States despite market disruptions:
Revenue at the company's Indian hotel business exceeded plans by 25% year-to-date. Brookfield has about 99% occupancy in its Brazilian, South Korean and Dubai office portfolios, with renewal rates 20% ahead of plan, according to the CEO.
"The Brookfield ecosystem enables us to unearth attractive opportunities that others may overlook or cannot undertake and to react to changing market conditions in real-time, on an asset-by-asset basis," said Flatt.
"Given the turmoil markets across the globe are experiencing, we believe there is tremendous opportunity ahead to acquire some great real estate for value, once again."