Year’s wrapping up, curious how everyone’s acquisition teams performed from a deployment standpoint. Personally, I’ve seen a weird split this year: headlines saying the faucet’s off, but in my market (SFBA / West Coast) I was surprised how active it actually felt.
How’d things shake out for you guys? Was deal flow as dead as people made it sound, or did you still manage to get capital out the door?
REIT side here - ~$750M+ deployed YTD.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, deal flow in acquisitions seems to have varied significantly depending on the market and asset class. While some markets experienced tight conditions with competitive deals and compressed spreads, others saw surprisingly active pipelines. For example:
Regional Variations: Some contributors noted that deal flow was intense in certain regions, with opportunities arising from deals falling out of contract or secondary assets in secondary cities being pursued to maintain returns.
Market Sentiment: Despite broader headlines suggesting a slowdown, specific markets like the SFBA/West Coast might have seen more activity, aligning with your experience.
Deployment Trends: On the REIT side, deploying ~$750M+ YTD is a strong performance, especially in a year where many firms were cautious about hiring and deal-making.
Challenges and Opportunities: Tight spreads and competitive bidding were common themes, but some firms managed to stay active by focusing on niche opportunities or secondary markets.
It seems like the year was a mixed bag, with some teams thriving while others faced headwinds. Your deployment figures suggest your team navigated the market effectively!
Sources: Acquisitions - How active is your pipeline?, Ranking of PERE 50 firms for Acquisitions Analyst out of UG?, Development vs Acquisitions Lifestyle, Q&A: SVP with 15+ YOE BB -> MM -> MC (all M&A): A Long & Strange Trip
Not the year I thought I was going to have on January 1, 2025. We had a few large projects that ultimately got sidetracked and then died (combination of stock market volatility and federal funding cuts for scientific research). Will end up closing on four acquisitions, but two are pretty small. Some volatility at the portfolio level keeps me sidetracked (tenant shutting down operations, subleases hitting the market, difficulties paying rent, bad debt on multi) that generates a certain level of ambient stress. As I said to my wife, being in a cyclical industry is not fun if you are in the not fun part of the cycle. Silver lining is we did almost nothing in 2021 and 2022, which is keeping the portfolio fires at a level we can manage.
No deals in 2021 - 2022 to 4 deals in 2025. Make this make sense to me!!
Hard to find acquisitions that made sense in 2021 and 2022. We had a few development deals we were working on in those years that died on the vine when interest rates really started to move, but nothing to buy. Easier to find deals that made sense (for us) once it was harder for other groups to find debt & equity.
Would you rather have bought an apartment at a 3.5 cap in Q421/Q122 or a 5 cap today (20% discount) if you are a long-term holder?
Slower flow than a zero-fiber diet.
Last week was the slowest yet, we had lots of deal flow before that
You know the Pitch Drop Experiment? It's sorta like that
Good deal flow but there remains a bid-ask spread so a down year on $ volume in my market. The plethora of debt capital has rescued folks that would otherwise have been forced to sell, again putting a governor on transaction volume.
Closed two deals and put a shovel in the ground on a multi project, so better year than expected.
I am in a HCOL east coast market and am struggling to attract capital that prefers growth stories with higher yields (i.e., SE & Texas).
Seeing some green shoots as the year closes out so optimistic that there will be opportunity to make some $ in 2026.
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