Walker & Dunlop, Inc., a commercial real estate service provider, today announced the expansion of its affordable housing platform with a new investment sales team, according to a press release. The team of eleven members will aim to help clients “create, preserve and revitalize affordable communities.”
The team will be led by Aaron Hargrove and Eric Taylor, managing directors of the company and former real estate advisors at Greystone.
“We look forward to collaborating with the entire affordable team and adding our expertise in affordable investment sales,” said Hargrove in the statement.
The members of the new team have experience in the affordable housing landscape, including the landlord rental subsidy for low income tenants, ie. Section 8, the low income housing credit program Section 42, and rural development, as per the release. Walker & Dunlop will use their expertise to provide brokerage services like refinancing, partnership dissolution and qualified contract execution, among others to property owners.
The firm also says it will broaden the company’s debt financing, LIHTC equity and its focus on the development, management and technology for the affordable housing industry.
“The addition of investment sales to our existing suite of affordable services ensures our ability to further our mission of creating and maintaining the nation’s affordable housing stock by elevating the ways in which we can support our clients,” said Sheri Thompson, executive vice president for affordable housing and investment management/proprietary capital at Walker & Dunlop.
The team will also help the company originate $60 billion of affordable and workforce housing loans by 2025, she added.
Today, the organization has $19.3 billion in multi-family property sales volume (2021) and is a capital provider to the multi-family market, originating $49 billion in transactions and lending over $42 billion for such properties in 2021, as per information given in the release.
“Our team is eager to join forces with Walker & Dunlop’s existing affordable platform to provide an investment sales solution to our combined client base,” said managing director Taylor, in the statement. “We are encouraged by the cross-collaboration between teams and how we can use W&D’s technology to enhance our processes, and by the opportunity to help build something special.”
The affordable team at Walker & Dunlop has financed $10B of affordable financing in 2021 through HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, among other sources.
In other recent proptech news, VTS, a commercial real estate intelligence proptech, raised $125 million Series E led by CBRE. Griffin Realty Trust, Inc., a blue-chip landlord and non-traded real estate investment trust, also sold its majority interest in properties worth more than $1.1 billion to a consortium of investors and its operating partner, the “Office Portfolio Sale.”