All ABOUT ACCESS
ABOUT US
Founded by a seasoned investment banker, Aquity focus on real estate markets in greater New York area, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Florida. We specialize in condo, office building, hotel and mixed use developments. With abundant transaction experiences, our team bring Asian capital to participate in US real estate development opportunities through equity, preferred equity or mezzanine loan. We provide highly customized solutions that suit investment goals of different Asian investors and match them with US developers and property owners on a project by project basis. Through our value add services that facilitate timely and accurate communications, we bridge the cultural differences and ensure smooth transactions.
Who we raise capital from
China’s sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), tier-one insurers, mid-tier insurers, corporate investors, Chinese private equity funds through government approved Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor ("QDII") program and high net worth individuals (HNWI) with capital offshore. Chinese real estate developers have also been active.
As competition in gateway cities continues to increase, Chinese investors will need to include other large metropolitan areas, such as Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver and Seattle in the hunt for better investment opportunities. Institutional investors are also beginning to take note of the attractive returns offered by industrial and logistics properties.
Which cities we cover
Types of developments
Over the two-year period, purchases of hotel and office assets in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco accounted for over 60 per cent of U.S.-bound capital to commercial real estate, with purchases of premium office and hotel assets in New York and Los Angeles comprising approximately half of the total.
So far this year (2015), the Chinese have forked over more than $3.8 billion on Manhattan real estate, a more than threefold increase over what they spent in all of 2014.
Depending on the project scale and risk profile, Chinese investors would consider from $10million to $100million per project.
Investment size
Forms of investments
SWFs, insurers, private equity funds and high net worth individuals are commonly interested in equity participation as limited partner or through mezzanine loan, whereas Chinese developers prefer to team up with local developers for co-developments.
Return expectation
Depending on the project risk profile, location, and investment size, Chinese investor have different expectations.