Nicholas Nicolaou, left, senior vice president, and Ken Uranowitz, president, Gebroe-Hammer Associates

LIVINGSTON, NJ—Multifamily investors kept brokers busy in the first two months of the year, according to Ken Uranowitz, president of Gebroe-Hammer Associates. The Livingston-based investment brokerage firm arranged 17 transactions – averaging two per week – in the first eight weeks of the year. In total, the deals involved 1,563 units sold for a combined $211.555 million.

“As predicted, the recent interest rate hike is a non-factor when it comes to multi-family investing,” says Uranowitz. “The supply curve continues to dip downward, even with evolving economic variables such as employment and interest rates, while demand is soaring at a time when rent growth is attainable soon after the deal closes.”

Throughout the densely-populated counties of Hudson and Union, Gebroe-Hammer exclusively represented the sellers and/or identified the buyers in 11 separate deals accounting for a total of 539 units. The properties were located in New Providence, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Union City and West New York.

“Existing Hudson County multi-family properties have a unique 'gift' or knack of turning a significant return, in a relatively short amount of time, due in large part to this submarket's proximity to New York City,” says Nicholas Nicolaou, senior vice president and the firm's Hudson County market specialist, who arranged six of the latest sales involving 277 units. “Investors are enjoying a 'Midas touch,' particularly when it comes to 1970s-era properties that have been updated, thanks to the millennial tenant pool who want a Manhattan-like lifestyle, at a monthly rental rate they can afford.”

In Central and Southern New Jersey – where there is a lower concentration of multi-family properties as compared to Hudson and Union County – the firm's brokerage professionals arranged three sales in Middlesex County encompassing 346 units while in the Jersey Shore submarket, 577 units traded.

“The laws of stark supply and fever-pitch demand transcend every multi-family asset class, in every submarket, in the state of New Jersey at levels I've never seen during my entire 40 year career,” says Uranowitz. “While the time is right to sell for long-time owners, many are enjoying the fruits of their decades-long labor of maintaining, updating and soundly managing their properties.”

Last year, Gebroe-Hammer recorded a 178 percent increase in year-over-year sales.

Instant Insights /

Gebroe-Hammer Brokers 17 NJ Deals Worth $212M in First Two Months

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