Apartment developers going back to Washington

Washington

THE Washington, DC, apartment market - after years of overbuilding that created a glut of rentals - is getting a new round of development by some of the country's biggest real estate companies as employment improves.

Toll Brothers Inc's apartment division will more than double its stock in the area in the next three years. Camden Property Trust has 862 units under construction and is under contract to buy land for a 365-unit project. AvalonBay Communities Inc, the No 2 publicly traded multifamily landlord, is raising its bet on an up-and-coming neighbourhood where it acquired an existing building in 2012.

Tepid job gains and a spate of construction that created almost 20,000 units in the past two years made Washington one of the worst markets for US landlords, forcing owners to grant tenants concessions such as months of free rent to keep new luxury apartments from going empty. Now, c…