Azora Invests $270M in The U.S. To Bring U.S. Multifamily Fund Portfolio to Over 800 Rental Units

• Since entering the U.S. real estate market this year, Azora has completed residential and commercial transactions totaling $270 million.
• Azora’s U.S. multifamily fund has invested over $140 million in over 800 homes in the U.S. Sunbelt States following first close in April

Azora announces that it has completed the purchase of two further properties on behalf of the ONE Azora Exan Multifamily Fund I, its U.S. multifamilyfund (the “Fund”), which held its first close in April. The acquisitions bring Azora’s total investments in the U.S. residential and commercial sectors to $270 million this year and demonstrating the success of both its internationalization strategy and the expansion of its U.S. platform.

Azora announced the launch of its U.S. multifamilyfund, alongside the Fund’s first investment in June, and the acquisition of these latest two residential communities brings total investments on behalf of the Fund to c. $140 million. The Fund invests in affordable multifamily for rent residential properties in the Sunbelt states of the South and Southeast of the U.S.

The first of the recently acquired properties is The Edge at Lees Chapel, a 299-home multifamily community in Greensboro, North Carolina’s third largest city and part of the most important manufacturing and logistics distribution area in the southeastern U.S.

The second acquisition is Midwood at Riverside, a 232-unit multifamily community in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta is one of the top 10 U.S. metropolitan areas by population (c. 6.1 million inhabitants) and has had a growth rate of more than 77,000 inhabitants per year for the past 10 years.

With these two properties and the The Fredd in San Antonio, which was acquired in May, the Fund now owns more than 800 rented residential units across Texas, North Carolina and Georgia. The acquisitions demonstrate Azora’s ability to leverage the expertise of its market leading residential platform in Europe and Spain (where Azora is a pioneer and leading manager with more than 18,000 rented residential units and an investment volume of €2.7 billion), to build a portfolio in the U.S.

Focus on office, industrial and retailsectors

Azora is also active in the U.S. office, industrial and retailsectors, where it has invested more than $130 million so far this year by leveraging on Azora Exan’s experience in these segments. This year Azora has acquired c.27,000 sqm in Core and Core plus assets in the main US markets. In the Office segment, Azora is pursuing an investment strategy focused on acquiring boutiqueoffice buildings located in prime locations within the business districts of the U.S. gateway cities. In line with this strategy, Azora has already acquired two buildings this year, one of them located in South Beach in Miami (Florida) and another in River North in Chicago (Illinois) where it acquired a building under a Sale and Leaseback agreement.

Fernando Pérez-Hickman, Managing Partner of Azora America, said: “We are fully convinced of the potential of our strategy in the affordable rented residential market in the U.S. It is a very stable and cyclically resilient segment, with very limited new product supply and continued demand growth, which allows us to offset the current inflation effect, especially in the markets we focus on, which enjoy full employment.”

Javier Rodríguez-Heredia, Managing Partner of Azora Real Estate, commented: “These latest acquisitions demonstrate the strong progress we are making towards our goal of replicating the affordable rented residential strategy that we have pioneered in Spain, in the U.S. We believe this is a sound, balanced investment proposition that provides a very attractive risk-return for our clients, which is especially important in these uncertain times.”

In October 2021, Azora announced its entry into the U.S. real estate market alongside Exan Capital, an independent real estate manager based in Miami, through the creation of Azora Exan. This transaction was an important step in Azora’s internationalization strategy, adding to its consolidated European platform a direct investment capacity in the U.S. market, a market identified as strategic for Azora’s future growth. In April 2022, Azora launched its new multifamily fund in the U.S., focused on investing in affordable rented residential in the Sunbelt states. Through Azora Exan, Azora continues to expand its presence in the U.S. in the residential, hotel, logistics and office segments.

About Azora

Founded in 2003, the Azora Group (“Azora”) is a leading, vertically integrated, Spanish real estate investment and asset management firm, with c.€6.5 billion of assets under management across Europe and the US. Over the past 19 years, Azora has grown to c. 300 professionals with extensive experience across the spectrum of real estate investing, including sourcing, structuring and investing, new developments and repositioning, asset management, leasing and sale of individual assets or portfolios.

Azora specialises in different types of assets: residential, hotels, logistics, offices, senior homes and renewable energy and is promoting new investment lines in leisure, data centres and infrastructure.

Azora pioneered the rented residential segment in Spain, launching its first BTR vehicle in 2003 and currently managing the largest portfolio of purpose-built rented residential assets in Spain, with c.15,000 units under management. Azora has also pioneered other social-linked segments of the Living space including student housing (where it built out the largest student housing portfolio in Continental Europe; RESA) and senior living (currently investing in Spain through Adriano Care).

Through its US investee (Azora Exan), Azora offers its investors the possibility of investing in the most powerful, stable and legally secure economy in the world, not only in the creation and management of office, logistics and retail real estate assets, but also in other value-added activities in which Azora has decades of proven experience. This is the case of the launch of its new residential rental fund in the US, focused on the Sunbelt states. Thus, through Azora Exan, Azora will continue to expand its presence in the US (where it has owned hotels for several years) in the residential, hotel, logistics and office segments.

Talia Jessener
Senior Consultant, Strategic Communications
AZORA Group