The market for multifamily buildings in Brooklyn has been heating up over the last year. But the recent sale of 111 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg was stunning even in a hot market.
The buyer, American Realty Advisors, paid $55.5 million, or more than $895,000 for each of 111 Kent’s 62 apartments. The price paid per apartment is a record for such properties outside Manhattan, according to the data company, Real Capital Analytics.
“It was an eye-popping number,” said Douglas Steiner, a developer and investor and the chairman of Steiner Studios. Mr. Steiner most recently acquired a 60-unit rental in Carroll Gardens for $24.5 million, or $408,000 a unit, and is in contract to buy another rental building in the borough.
Several factors are behind the trend, including a strong rental market and low interest rates. Rents in the borough increased by 10 percent in 2010 and were estimated to increase by 7 percent last year, according to a market report by TerraCRG, a brokerage firm based in the borough, citing research by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services. Ofer Cohen, the founder and president of TerraCRG, estimates Brooklyn rents will climb another 5 percent to 10 percent over the next 12 to 18 months.
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