Opportunistic Real Estate Deals Available in Europe, Investor Says

Ron Kravit, head of real estate investing with Cerberus Capital, joined REIT.com for a video interview during the Real Estate Luminaries Series event at Georgetown University on April 23.

Kravit discussed the availability of opportunistic real estate deals in the United States and the European market.

“It’s really hard in the U.S.,” he said. “We’re still finding opportunistic situations in Europe. It hasn’t fully taken on what’s happened here in the U.S. We just tied up a big portfolio in Ireland that was a $2 billion dollar purchase price on an almost $5 billion dollar face portfolio.”

Kravit was asked if there are any other international markets that he finds appealing in the current investing environment.

“Not right now, no. We’re mostly focused on Western Europe,” he said.

Kravit described the level of interest he is seeing from non-U.S. investors in investing in U.S. real estate. He said international investors have shown a significant appetite for U.S. assets.

“There’s just a massive amount of capital flowing into the U.S. from all over the world—for safety, for yield and [for] just hard assets,” he said.

Kravit was asked for his opinion with regard to whether the capital coming into the U.S. is primarily going to the coastal markets. While that may have been the case previously, Kravit indicated that it may now be changing.

“I think it’s spreading,” he said. “I think you’re seeing a point where the coastal markets have played pretty well, and now you’re starting to see movement to the tertiaries, secondaries and other major cities.”