LOS ANGELES—The stability in the multifamily market is attracting institutional capital, according to Marc Renard, vice chairman and the executive managing director of the capital markets group at Cushman & Wakefield. Renard is busy preparing for the upcoming RealShare Apartments conference on October 15 and 16 in Downtown Los Angeles, where he will be moderating the panel on multifamily investment strategies. He will talk to five key players in the multifamily investment market—Sean Bannon, managing director of Zurich Alternative Asset Management; Adam Berry, SVP at Essex Property Trust; Rodney Chu; executive director at UBS; Jeff Daniels, managing director at AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp.; Dean Rostovsky, equity partner and director and Clarion Partners—about the current trends in the market and what's next. We caught up with him before the conference to ask him his thoughts on the market and get a sneak peak of the questions he plans to ask the panel. Here is what we found out:

GlobeSt.com: What are the hot trends or topics you plan to discuss with the panel?

Renard: The panel consists of some of the largest institutional players in the marketplace, so our discussion will focus on how the panelists and their respective organizations are making investment decisions today and allocating their capital. Some of the panelists invest across different property types, so discussing the merits and trends across different property types, discussing the current pipeline of supply on the market and how, as allocators of capital, they are gauging demand. There is also a trend to build to the millennial demographic, so we will discuss that as well.  

GlobeSt.com: What is your take on the multifamily investment market?

Renard: I think the overall outlook for multifamily is very strong, based on the recovering economic conditions and job growth. Multifamily, as an asset class within commercial real estate, is viewed very favorably based on the merits of multifamily, which are viewed as less volatile than other property types. Multifamily prices like a fixed income and therefore is intriguing to institutional capital, which are looking to mitigate risk. 

GlobeSt.com: What geographic areas are investors finding the most opportunities?

Renard: What certainly has been a prevalent trend since the most recent downturn is the migration of institutional capital to the gateway cities, which would be Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and New York, and as investors' appetite for risk has increased, you have seen the geographic locations where they will invest expand as capital searches for incremental yield. This trend is prevalent in the marketplace now.

GlobeSt.com: What is your forecast for this market over the next 12 to 18 months?

Renard: I think we are in a very stable period in the capital markets and in the investment markets for multifamily. I don't foresee any major deviations from the current trends and capital flows that we are seeing.