Real Estate Technology, Agent
PRnewswire | August 04, 2023
Capital Square, one of the nation's leading sponsors of tax-advantaged real estate investments and an active developer of multifamily communities, announced today that its offering, CS1031 Ashford Townes BFR Housing, DST, has been fully subscribed. The Regulation D private placement, which raised nearly $13.7 million from accredited investors, is comprised of a 74-unit, newly constructed build-for-rent townhome community in the affluent Raleigh suburb of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.
Capital Square formed the Private Equity Group, managed by experienced real estate executives Dave Platter and Jon Trott as managing directors and co-heads, to profit from opportunities in the housing market, including a dedicated build-for-rent ("BFR") strategy in high growth sunbelt markets. This represents Capital Square's third BFR offering on platform to date.
"This is another home run for Capital Square in providing a newly constructed build-for-rent housing community for Section 1031 exchange and other investors seeking stable cash flow and capital appreciation. From Class A and Class B residential communities, manufactured housing in Florida and now build-for-rent residential communities, Capital Square is providing investors with a range of options to invest in the vibrant southeastern housing markets," said Louis Rogers, founder and co-chief executive officer of Capital Square.
Completed in February 2022, Ashford Townes is located at 604 Oakbrook Pass Way. The townhome community, developed by D.R. Horton, the nation's largest homebuilder by volume, boasts three-bedroom, open floorplans averaging 1,693 square feet with integrated smart-home technology, stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops, high vaulted ceilings, built-in window blinds, spacious walk-in closets, full size washer-dryers, attached one-car garages, private patios and outdoor storage. A community dog park is additionally contemplated for development.
Residents have access to over 130,000 jobs, including major employers such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Novartis, IQVIA, JLL and Duke Energy. Five minutes from the property are a plethora of local retailers, restaurants, breweries, fitness centers and top performing schools. Approximately 30 minutes south of the property is Research Triangle Park, the largest research park in the U.S. and a premier global innovation center covering 7,000 acres of the combined Raleigh-Durham-Cary statistical area.
"Ashford Townes is an affordable housing option amidst Raleigh's single-family for-sale market, where rents are predicted to grow 3.75% over the next five years," said Whitson Huffman, co-chief executive officer. "The area has seen a recent decline of multifamily inventory, making the Raleigh market an attractive market for investment in a high-quality single-family rental community."
Capital Square is an active owner of multifamily communities in North Carolina. The firm recently acquired Asheville NC Apartment Portfolio, a two-property multifamily portfolio comprised of a total of 305 apartment homes in Asheville. The community was acquired on behalf of CS1031 Asheville NC Apartment Portfolio, DST, a private placement offering that seeks to raise $73.1 million in equity from accredited investors and has a minimum investment requirement of $50,000.
Since its founding in 2012, Capital Square has acquired 171 real estate assets for over 6,500 investors seeking quality replacement properties that qualify for tax deferral under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code and other investors seeking stable cash flow and capital appreciation.
About Capital Square
Capital Square is a vertically integrated national real estate firm specializing in tax-advantaged real estate investments, including Delaware statutory trusts for Section 1031 exchanges, qualified opportunity zone funds for tax deferral and exclusion and a real estate investment trust (REIT). In recent years the company has become an active developer of mixed-use multifamily properties in the southeastern U.S., with eight current projects totaling approximately 2,000 apartment units with a total development cost in excess of $600 million. Since 2012, Capital Square has completed more than $7.5 billion in transaction volume. Capital Square's related entities provide a range of services, including due diligence, acquisition, loan sourcing, property/asset management and disposition, for a growing number of high-net-worth investors, private equity firms, family offices and institutional investors. Since 2017, Capital Square has been recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the nation for six consecutive years. In 2017, 2018 and 2020, the company was also ranked on Richmond BizSense's list of fastest growing companies. Additionally, Capital Square was listed by Virginia Business on their "Best Places to Work in Virginia" report in 2019 and their "Fantastic 50" reports in 2019 and 2020. In 2023, Capital Square was recognized by the Richmond Times-Dispatch as one of the region's "Top Work Places."
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Market Outlook, Real Estate Investment
PRNewswire | August 02, 2023
Zillow® Group's new-construction listings will soon be automatically syndicated to Redfin, connecting home builders with motivated buyers on both platforms. The strategic partnership will dramatically expand the reach of home builder listings on Zillow and allow Redfin customers to explore a broader range of new-construction homes for sale, creating a seamless home-buying experience.
The new partnership comes at a time when new construction is gaining prominence among buyers. In June 2023, new single-family home sales were up 23.8% from a year ago. This is partly because the inventory of existing homes is dwindling and consumers are shifting to new construction to find a home that meets their needs. Zillow's latest market report shows there were 28% fewer new listings added to the market this June compared to last year. A Redfin analysis found that in the first half of 2023, one-third of single-family homes available for buyers to choose from were new construction, a record-high share.
"Zillow provides a standout platform for home builders to highlight their communities and connect with potential buyers. Zillow's Community pages, in particular, help buyers understand the benefits of a new-construction home and give home builders a place to highlight all the amenities within a new-build community," said Owen Gehrett, vice president and general manager of New Construction at Zillow. "The partnership with Redfin extends this unique and valuable resource to a wider audience. It benefits home builders by expanding their reach to additional home buyers, while empowering home shoppers to make confident and informed decisions, regardless of where they choose to shop."
Zillow boasts the largest selection of new-construction communities of all real estate websites in the U.S.,1 making it the ultimate choice for buyers seeking new homes and home builders looking to connect with those prospective shoppers. Through this strategic partnership, home builders will also market their new-construction communities to Redfin's extensive customer base of 50 million monthly visitors. Builders partnering with Zillow will begin to see their listings and communities syndicated to Redfin in the fourth quarter of 2023.
"With buyer demand outpacing the supply of existing homes for sale, Redfin's home-buying customers are increasingly turning to new construction," said Adam Wiener, Redfin's president of real estate operations. "Our Zillow partnership will help our customers discover more homes that fit their criteria. This is a win-win-win for our customers, agents and the builders who advertise with Zillow, who will now reach the homebuyers on Redfin. The partnership provides a new revenue opportunity while allowing us to focus on what we do best, helping customers buy and sell homes with local Redfin agents."
As part of the rollout, Redfin will launch new features to help buyers discover new-construction communities and connect with home builders, powered by Zillow's Community pages. These pages highlight important community amenities, featuring photos, videos, community maps and amenity details, which is incredibly important to new-construction buyers. According to Zillow's 2023 New Construction Consumer Housing Trends Report, 53% of new-construction buyers greatly value shared amenities such as clubhouses and fitness centers, compared to only 24% of existing home buyers.
Community pages also list all available homes for sale within the community, including homes that are move-in ready, nearly complete and lots, and provide a direct link to the builder's website, contact information and sales center hours. These features enable builders to showcase their homes, amenities and details in one convenient place, and soon, the features will be accessible to both Zillow and Redfin shoppers.
Upon the launch of the partnership, Redfin will source non-MLS new-construction listings exclusively from Zillow. New-construction listings available through an MLS will still be discoverable on Redfin.
About Zillow Group
Zillow Group, Inc. is reimagining real estate to make home a reality for more and more people. As the most visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow and its affiliates help people find and get the home they want by connecting them with digital solutions, great partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences.
Zillow Group's affiliates, subsidiaries and brands include Zillow®; Zillow Premier Agent®; Zillow Home Loans℠; Zillow Closing Services℠; Trulia®; Out East®; StreetEasy®; HotPads®; and ShowingTime+℠, which includes ShowingTime®, Bridge Interactive®, and dotloop®.
About Redfin
Redfin is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, title insurance, and renovations services. We also run the country's #1 real estate brokerage site. Our home-buying customers see homes first with same day tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Customers selling a home in certain markets can have our renovations crew fix up their home to sell for top dollar. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Customers who buy and sell with Redfin pay a 1% listing fee, subject to minimums, less than half of what brokerages commonly charge. Since launching in 2006, we've saved customers more than $1.5 billion in commissions. We serve more than 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 5,000 people.
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Real Estate Advice
PRnewswire | August 16, 2023
Zenerate ,an innovative AI startup in the Proptech space, has entered into a strategic partnership with SoLa Impact ,the leading private real estate developer of affordable housing in California. Zenerate has developed a powerful platform that employs generative design, artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics to optimize the feasibility analysis process for real estate projects, reducing turnaround time and maximizing development returns.
In a groundbreaking move to revolutionize the affordable housing sector, SoLa Impact has partnered with Zenerate, to streamline and automate the feasibility analysis process for their affordable and modular housing developments. The collaboration brings cutting-edge AI technology to the modular construction industry and dramatically accelerates the speed of planning, configuration, design, and the permit approval process for a wide range of SoLa's affording housing projects.
SoLa Impact has been at the forefront of addressing the affordable housing crisis in Los Angeles over the last decade, consistently demonstrating its commitment to creating sustainable, community-focused housing solutions. SoLa currently has over 35 projects with almost 3,000 units at various stages of construction, the majority of which are dedicated to affordable housing. With the increasing demand in the affordable segment, the need for swift and accurate feasibility, configuration, and design analysis has become paramount in the real estate development landscape.
Martin Muoto, the Founder and CEO of SoLa Impact, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, "We are thrilled to collaborate with Zenerate in our mission to dramatically scale the development and delivery of high-quality affordable housing in California. By leveraging Zenerate's cutting-edge technology combined with our proprietary standardization processes, we can bring significantly more units to market more cost-effectively and more quickly, with the vast majority of our projects to house people that are currently homeless and living in tents. Equally important, these are units that are an order-of-magnitude more energy efficient than the aging housing stock they are replacing. All units are fully electric, use water-efficient fixtures, and have ENERGY STAR-certified appliances, dramatically reducing GHG emissions while providing cost savings to California's low-income Black and brown communities."
The integration of Zenerate's software into SoLa Impact's modular operations will facilitate data-driven decision-making, allowing for a more efficient and comprehensive evaluation of potential development sites, construction costs, and market demand. By automating the feasibility and design analysis, SoLa Impact's team will be able to evaluate more sites, repurpose vacant and sub-optimized locations, and build for maximum density and affordability.
The Co-Founder and CEO of Zenerate, Benji Shin, echoed Muoto's sentiments, emphasizing Zenerate's commitment to providing housing more quickly and affordably by leveraging Artificial Intelligence, particularly expert systems for code compliance and machine learning for rapid massing, configuration, and design. "We are thrilled to partner with SoLa Impact, whose deep commitment to creating sustainable, scalable, and affordable housing aligns perfectly with our mission. By automating key parts of the feasibility, configuration, and eventually, the permitting process, we aim to enable developers to run thousands of financial and design scenarios instantly, ultimately contributing to the advancement of affordable housing initiatives."
The innovative approach undertaken by SoLa Impact and Zenerate is expected to have a significant impact on the speed and scale of affordable housing development in California, starting in Los Angeles – the largest affordable housing market in the United States with the most acute homeless problem – and then expanding to other local municipalities, and eventually, other states.
About SoLa Impact
SoLa Impact is a family of real estate funds with a double bottom line strategy focused on preserving, rehabbing, and building high-quality affordable housing in low- and moderate-income communities. SoLa's proven track record leverages data-driven social impact strategies to deliver superior financial returns. SoLa Impact's fourth fund, the Black Impact Fund, has invested $1 billion in affordable housing in Southern California. SoLa Impact was ranked as the 7th fastest-growing minority-led private company by Inc. 500 and was awarded the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) Emerging Manager ESG Award for SoLa's demonstrated ability to deliver on its commitment to positive changes in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters.
AboutZenerate
Zenerate, a member company of Born2Gl obal Centre, is a venture-backed innovative AI startup in the real estate development space, providing consulting services and web-based products for feasibility studies; Z-maps is a real estate development map that weekly updates all the latest projects in Southern California, and Zenerate App is a design automation tool that generates development scenarios with floor plans in real time for feasibility studies.
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