Real Estate Bubble Not Burst Yet

Not surprisingly, interest rates were addressed by a number of speakers. In a session titled, “The Value Proposition Today,” Richard Saltzman, president of Colony Capital, LLC in Los Angeles, observed that “investing is all about relatives, not absolutes,” and that if market fundamentals continue to improve and rates remain benign, that the environment for real estate investors should remain healthy. As part of the same panel discussion, Mike Kirby, director of research for Green Street Advisors in Newport Beach, California, observed that the historic low cost of capital has caused some buyers to improperly assess the potential risks, because they “can borrow about 95% of the acquisition cost at low interest.”

In addition to program sessions giving an overview of the current REIT marketplace, there were an estimated 135 individual company presentations scheduled over the three days to give investors more information on the different options available to them.