What were the biggest Chattanooga-area real estate deals of 2019?

Despite the addition of thousands of new apartments and condominiums in Chattanooga over the past three years, outside investors continued to bid up the value of apartment complexes in Hamilton County during 2019.

Equity investment firms from New York to California collectively spent more than $200 million in 2019 buying rental properties in Hamilton County, according to property records by the Hamilton County Register of Deeds.

Eight of the 10 biggest real estate sales of last year in Hamilton County were of existing suburban apartment complexes, which sold this year for an average price of $109,102 per apartment. Three major apartment complexes – Hunters Point and the Shallowford Apartment Homes in East Brainerd and the Riverview Grande apartments in North Chattanooga – sold for more than $30 million each this year to investment companies based in Pasadena, Calif., Austin, Tex., or Atlanta.

“The market for suburban apartments and multi-family housing is very strong and there is a lot of capital from regional and national investors chasing that product,” said David DeVaney, president of NAI Charter Real Estate in Chattanooga who has worked in commercial real estate for nearly three decades. “The cap rates (or investment yields) in Chattanooga are 50 to 100 basis points higher than other major markets like Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte (North Carolina), so the prices here are going up.”