Paul McDermott, president and CEO of WashREIT (NYSE: WRE), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2019 Annual Conference in Los Angeles.
WashREIT has completed a $1.1 billion strategic capital recycling out of retail assets and into multifamily. “I definitely think we’ve set ourselves up for some value creation opportunities going forward,” McDermott said.
“We really like the multifamily demographics,” McDermott said, as he stressed the continued need for affordable housing. WashREIT focuses on the ‘affordability gap’ between class A and class B housing, he explained.
Relative to other asset classes that WashREIT has owned, multifamily has a particularly stable income aspect, according to McDermott. “For at least the next five-plus years, we see those demographics very much intact,” he said.