Ofer Cohen, an investment sales broker and founder of Brooklyn-focused brokerage TerraCRG, said “large semi-institutional families and institutional investors” from Europe had been expressing interest in Brooklyn apartment buildings recently because they weren’t afraid of rent regulation. Germany, for example, has rent regulation written into its legal code, and Berlin recently tightened its rent control to ban almost all rent increases for the next five years.
He added that many local investors who are wary of buying in the five boroughs right now are looking at cheaper cities instead.
“Before you buy another 1,000 units here, you’re going to look in Texas; you’re going to look in other states,” said Cohen. “There’s also a sense that politics are increasingly going against business in New York State. If you have a choice, you will diversify.”
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