Business
How multifamily offices are playing commercial real estate
A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
The family offices of high-net-worth investors are increasingly pouring their money into alternatives, and real estate is high on their list. For some, instead of going it alone, they’re joining forces in multifamily offices.
The multifamily office model lets these investment arms of wealthy families pool resources, share expertise and unlock bigger deals. With more than $12 billion under management, Realm is a multifamily office investment platform specializing in commercial real estate. The typical family using Realm has about $200 million in investable assets.
CNBC spoke with its CEO, Travis King. Here are some highlights from the conversation, edited for length and clarity:
Property Play: Why go multifamily?
Travis King: We are better investors collectively than we would be individually. So what that means is we’re combining not only capital, but also our collective trusted relationships and industry knowledge and geographic knowledge to find and execute better investment decisions.
You’ve seen big allocations amongst the institutions. They’ve all grown their real estate allocations, in some cases, from low single digits to, in some cases,10% or more allocation-wise. You still don’t see that with a lot of the family offices, although there’s a strong desire to do so.
So I think that next horizon is going to be finding ways to access direct real estate with these families that will allow them to be able to diversify a little bit more and enjoy some of those benefits of real estate that have been a little bit elusive unless you wanted to actually buy that real estate yourself, which can tend to be very time intensive, for sure, and, a lot of times, requires a pretty large dedicated staff.
PP: How do you play real estate?
TK: Real estate is evolving, right? There’s never one thing that you want to be focused on in real estate. I think that’s part of what gives us a leg up. … You’ve heard the adage ‘location, location, location,’ and that’s true. I think that continues to be a very true adage. What we find is that we’re unique in that we move across property type and across geography. So given the scale that we have as an organization with, I think collectively, north of $12 billion in investable assets amongst these families that we work with, we have the ability to see a lot of different deal flow in a lot of different areas.
In real estate, there’s a macro-cycle, and that cycle is always very important. You don’t want to swim against the tide. You also don’t want to, you know, try to fight the cycle. But there’s micro-cycles that happen in different geographies and within different property types, so that’s a key thing to consider.
PP: So of the many CRE sectors, what’s your fave?
TK: If you look at this point in time, what we think is interesting, you’ll start with office. I think in a lot of areas, we’re starting to see office really be in an area where we think that pricing has kind of bottomed. And you know that because when we start looking at some of these investment decisions — we’re looking at one right now in Northern California — it becomes less of, ‘Hey, would we like this if it were just a little bit cheaper?’ And it starts to get to the point where that’s not really the question anymore. It really gets down to saying, ‘We know it’s cheap. It’s intrinsically cheap.’ In some cases, we’re buying things at 15% of replacement cost.
Realm CEO Travis King
Courtesy of Realm
PP: What are you staying away from?
TK: What I try to stay away from are broad categories, right? Say, for example, like, well R&D or industrial is going to be over. These things cycle, and there’s going to be different points in time. So I think the market, by and large … they look at things and say, ‘OK, data centers, you know, they’ve been over invested, and now there’s too much capital in data centers.’ We particularly were, we’re not really in data centers in a large way, because we focus on that lower middle market.
PP: Isn’t everybody in data centers?
TK: Yeah, but it’s the big boys in data centers, right? I’m trying to find an angle where we have something that others don’t. If you look at the big boys that have got tens of billions of dollars in their fund to be able to invest, there’s a lot of dollars required to do the infrastructure in the data center. We really focus on, kind of $50 million deals and below, because we feel like we’ve got an edge there. So yes, everyone is in data centers, but it’s one of those things where a lot of people are saying, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of money chasing this. It might be late in the cycle.’ I tend to probably agree with that, but it’s also just outside of the realm of where we’re trying to invest.
PP: How does your business change if interest rates come down?
TK: I would say reducing interest rates helps real estate in most every regard. I think first and foremost, it’s going to help transaction volume. I think it just provides a wind to the sails of transactions, and it raises the value of all real estate.
Business
Digital Life Certificate From Comfort Of Home For Pensioners: How To Book Doorstep Request Through India Post; Check Direct Link
New Delhi: India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), to provide doorstep Digital Life Certificate (DLC) services to its pensioners under the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995.
Under this collaboration, IPPB — a 100 per cent government-owned entity under the Department of Posts — will leverage its wide network of over 1.65 lakh post offices and more than 3 lakh postal service providers (postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks).
Digital Life Certificate For Free
EPFO will bear the cost of issuing Digital Life Certificate entirely, making the service free for their pensioners.
They are equipped with doorstep banking devices and digital process of face authentication technology and fingerprint biometric authentication, to assist EPFO pensioners in submitting their Digital Life Certificates conveniently from their homes, eliminating the need for them to visit bank branches or EPFO offices to submit traditional paper-based certificates.
Digital Life Certificate: How To Book Doorstep Request Online
Doorstep request for Digital Life Certificate can be made through the Post Info app or website.
You can visit https://ccc.cept.gov.in/ServiceRequest/request.aspx to book India Post doorstep request for Digital Life Certificate
India Post Payments Bank introduced the doorstep service of Digital Life Certificate in 2020 for generating Jeevan Pramaan for pensioners using Aadhaar-enabled biometric authentication to reduce the turnaround time for issuance of Jeevan Pramaan.
On completion of the certificate generation process, confirmation SMS will be received by the pensioner in his mobile number and the certificate can be viewed online the next day.
Business
UK interest rates set to stay at 4%, but policymakers ‘deeply divided’
UK interest rates are widely expected to be kept at 4% but policymakers are “deeply divided” about the threat of inflation, economists say.
The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will make its next decision on interest rates on Thursday.
Many economists expect borrowing costs to be kept on hold following signs that inflation is continuing to cool, and as the Bank awaits measures announced in November’s autumn Budget.
However, some experts, including banking giants Barclays and Goldman Sachs, are predicting a cut to 3.75%.
This is because they think policymakers might be swayed by recent economic data which signals a need to reduce borrowing costs further.
Most economists agree that there will be divisions among the nine-person committee when it comes to this week’s vote.
James Smith, a UK developed market economist for ING, said: “Inflation has almost certainly peaked.
“Food inflation – a critical concern at the Bank of England this summer – fell back in September and is now running half a percentage point below official forecasts.
“This all comes at a time when the Bank is visibly divided on how problematic inflation really is.”
Official figures showed that UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation stayed at 3.8% in September, the same level as both July and August, with food prices easing during the month.
The headline figure came in below the 4% that many economists had been expecting.
But Mr Smith said that, while the MPC was “deeply divided”, it will likely remain cautious about the risk of inflation being persistent and opt to keep rates on hold this month.
He also said the Bank was crucially waiting on the outcome of the Budget on November 26, adding: “While the contours of the Budget are becoming clearer, the Bank’s rules mean it can’t act on Government policy until it’s official.”
He added that an interest rate cut in December was now “becoming more likely” in response to potential tax-raising measures.
On the other hand, Jack Meaning, chief UK economist at Barclays, predicted that the recent inflation data would be enough to tip policymakers towards cutting rates on Thursday.
Coupled with data pointing to slowing wage growth among UK workers, he said this would be likely to give the committee more confidence that inflation was set to ease.
It comes after economists at US investment bank Goldman Sachs also predicted that recent figures would be enough to convince the Bank to cut rates to 3.75%.
This marks a shift in sentiment after many experts were ruling out a rate cut in November and said borrowing costs may not be reduced until 2026, coming as a setback to millions of mortgage holders still expected to refinance on to higher rates.
Business
Nat’l gold policy needed to contain losses: SBI Report – The Times of India
Mumbai: A State Bank of India research report has called for a long-term national gold policy that defines gold’s role, as money or as a commodity, and aligns it with broader financial reforms. The report said such a framework should link to India’s plans for capital account convertibility and encourage investment through the monetisation of idle gold. It added that the policy must harmonise how gold is treated in national income accounts, the balance of payments, and capital account to eliminate inconsistencies in accounting practices.According to SBI’s economic research department, high domestic demand for gold and India’s heavy import dependence with imports accounting for around 86% of total supply has created persistent pressure on the current account deficit. The increase in international price of gold is closely tied to rupee depreciation with the rupee coming under pressure every time gold prices rise because of heavy imports. The Govt also faces a fiscal loss of about Rs 93,284 crore on outstanding sovereign gold bonds, following a sharp rise in gold prices. These challenges are worsened by the lack of a comprehensive long-term policy to integrate gold’s treatment across accounting frameworks.To reduce smuggling and deepen the formal market, earlier reports proposed liberalizing gold and silver imports, including easing rules for NRIs. They also suggested introducing forward trading to allow price hedging.
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