Carlyle reduces US apartment holdings

[SEATTLE] Carlyle Group LP, the private-equity firm with more than a third of its US$2.3 billion US real estate fund in apartments, is reducing holdings of multi-family housing as rent growth slows from a post-recession surge.

The company is considering apartment sales as rising construction reduces multi-family housing shortages and price gains for rental properties make them less attractive for private-equity firms that seek returns of 20 per cent or more, said Robert Stuckey, the Washington-based firm's head of US real estate investing. Carlyle has invested or committed about US$800 million of equity in 61 multi-family properties since the start of 2011, he said.

"We went from an unusually high-growth market to a market that is growing and attractive but more stable," Mr Stuckey said. "Our capital was useful at the front edge of the recovery."