ULI:  Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.

MW:  I was born and raised in Ireland and moved to NYC in 1994 after graduating from university. Since then I have worked on Wall Street as a trusted advisor to operators of residential real estate companies. This was an industry that caught my attention early in my career and has remained my passion.

Whelan Advisory was founded in 2013 as a boutique investment bank, registered with FINRA and the SEC.  We offer capital raising, merger and acquisition advice to housing and construction related companies globally. Last year, despite the pandemic, we worked on three different transactions in the SFR/BTR space and raised a total of $800 million in private equity commitments on behalf of our clients.

ULI:  We are excited that you will be moderating our Trends Day Session: “The Explosion of Single Family Build-to-Rent.”   What interests you about this topic and product? 

MW:  Thank you for the opportunity, we have a great line up of speakers and I’m really looking forward to our panel.

I’ve been working with Single Family Rental (SFR) companies since they were initially formed after the Great Financial Crisis, and they have since very impressively established themselves as an industry and as an asset class.

Just a few years ago, it was clear that the opportunity to buy traditional SFR houses was drying up, so demand for the older, scattered lot homes was replaced by orders for new homes, initially on an individual basis and more recently as full communities. Due to the pandemic, and adverse changes in many cities more consumers now favor single family residences in suburban areas. To meet this demand, both equity and debt is flowing into the space at an accelerated rate, funding development of land and construction to bring more new build single family rental homes to market. As a result, cap rates for single family rental homes, and especially portfolios, have tightened dramatically in the last 12 months, and a lot of deals are priced for perfection.

During our panel we’ll do a deep dive on opportunities that still exist, and some of the key pitfalls to avoid. 

ULI:  We’re one year into the pandemic.  Looking forward, what are the opportunities that exist for folks in our industry? 

MW:  Yes indeed, and what a long year it has been!

Last March and April were rocky as we had no visibility on how this would play out for housing, but because construction was deemed essential work across almost all states production has accelerated steadily to try to keep up with demand.  As an industry, we have come together to navigate incredible disruption and volatility throughout the supply chain. As a consequence of these unique times, I believe that more technology has been adopted in the last 12 months in this space than in the last 12 years! This has accelerated the rate at which home purchases can be made, and how builders communicate with their suppliers and subcontractors.  Much of this technology was well received because it had already been tested in other real estate segments over the last decade. I expect more regular changes and improvements to best practices to continue going forward, and I view this as a tangible silver lining of the past 12 months.