ORLANDO—This morning, we brought you an examination of how some ofthen nation's biggest institutional players feel about thecompetitive marketplace for multifamily investment. In acontinuation of that discussion, executives from Blackstone, AIG,Starwood Capital share their thoughts on financing conditions andtheir outlook for the sector. The dialogue was part of aninformative session held here at the NMHC's 2016Apartment Strategies Outlook Conference this week moderated byReal Capital Analytics' founder and CEO,Bob White, and titled, "Awash in Capital: TheImpact of Global Investment on the US Market."

On the financing front, creativity may be a hot area ofdiscussion for many borrowers these days, but for the majorinstitutional players it runs counter to their strategies. Gettingcreative, AIG Global Real Estate InvestmentCorp.'s managing director, Jeff Danielssaid, is "where you run into trouble. We stick to our core valuesall the way through the cycle, and it's worked historically." Anydeviations from the norm are in the form of opportunities, such asentering strong secondary or tertiary markets.

To maintain maximum flexibility, BlackstoneGroup likes to use floating-rate debt, since that allowsthe firm to sell assets throughout the hold period withoutprepayment penalties. For its recent $2-billion portfolio buy fromGreystar, said principal Olivia John, it split upthe financing between agency and balance sheet, though the agenciestypically "aren't super aggressive on the types of deals that we'redoing."