Ferlauto, Hudson and Uy, whose deals usually range from $1 million to $25 million, will begin their careers at Colliers’ Encino office just as talks about threats to multifamily developments are becoming very real. At the Apartments 2006 conference, held Oct. 5 at the Hollywood and Highland complex, issues such as affordability, an overzealous condo craze and municipalities’ involvement in housing have kept many owners from fully enjoying the high-rent, low-vacancy market. The San Fernando Valley is on especially high alert, because it is in one of the districts, along with Brentwood and Westwood, in which council members are calling for a moratorium on condo conversions. This may not affect the team or Colliers’ PCA group that harshly, however, as Delores Conway, director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast at USC’s Lusk Center and a panelist in the Apartments 2006 economy panel noted, “the condo price appreciation has slowed in all major southwestern cities [while] the apartment market has really picked up, with vacancies declining and rates [rising].”
October 9, 2006