Blackstone to buy Home Partners for $6B; Welltower to pay $1.58B for portfolio

S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of real estate news stories published throughout the week.

U.S. commercial real estate transaction volume rose sharply in May from the COVID-19-stricken total a year earlier, but property market activity remained well below recent years' norm, Real Capital Analytics said.

Transactions totaled $26.6 billion for the month, up 73% from May 2020, with transaction pricing up 8.9% year over year, the data provider said in a report. Still, that increase is more a result of the pall that fell over property markets in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic than about any new strength in sales, Real Capital added.

Across commercial property types, deal volume in the first five months of the year averaged $199.4 billion from 2015 through 2019. For the same period of 2021, deals were roughly 15% below that average, at $169.9 billion.

All major property sectors posted deal volumes well below pre-pandemic averages except industrial and apartments, which were 18% and 8% above pre-COVID-19 averages, respectively. Both sectors also posted strong price growth: Real Capital's commercial property price indexes in May grew 10.1% year over year for apartments and 9.5% for industrial properties.

The price indexes grew 2.9% year over year for the office sector and 2.3% for retail.

READ MORE: Sign up for our weekly coronavirus newsletter here, and read our latest coverage on the crisis here.

Mammoth deals

* Private equity and real estate giant The Blackstone Group Inc.'s Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. agreed to buy single-family rental company Home Partners of America Inc. in a $6.0 billion deal, expected to close in the third quarter.

* Griffin-American Healthcare REIT IV Inc. and Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III Inc. agreed to merge in a tax-free, stock-for-stock transaction to form an entity with a gross investment value of about $4.2 billion in healthcare real estate assets.

The resultant healthcare real estate investment trust will be renamed American Healthcare REIT Inc., and closing is expected in the fourth quarter.

* Private equity giant KKR & Co. Inc. will set up a platform that will buy and manage single-family rental homes across the U.S., Bloomberg Markets reported, citing unnamed sources. The firm is investing in the My Community Homes platform out of its real estate and private credit funds.

Property plays

* Healthcare REIT Welltower Inc. agreed to purchase an 86-property seniors housing portfolio from Holiday Retirement for $1.58 billion. Upon closing, Atria Senior Living Inc. will acquire the management services business of Holiday.

* Medical Properties Trust Inc. will buy five general acute care hospitals in South Florida from Tenet Healthcare Corp. for about $900 million in conjunction with Steward Health Care System LLC's acquisition of the operations of the facilities. The transactions are expected to close during the second half of 2021.

* Canada's Artis Real Estate Investment Trust agreed to sell its 28-property industrial portfolio in Greater Toronto for C$750.0 million as part of its plan to monetize its industrial portfolio.

* Hotel landlord Pebblebrook Hotel Trust will pay $270.0 million to acquire the 369-room Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort in Florida.

* Apartment Investment and Management Co., also known as Aimco, intends to sell 12 class B apartment buildings with a total of 556 units for $250 million as it looks to downsize its portfolio in Manhattan, N.Y., The Real Deal reported.

* Urban office REIT Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. and Nuveen Real Estate are looking to sell up to a 90% stake in a $450 million, 307,000-square-foot Cambridge, Mass., property, Real Estate Alert reported.

On the lookout

* Condor Hospitality Trust Inc. said its board is considering strategic alternatives for the company. The hotel REIT tapped Hodges Ward Elliott to market for sale its portfolio of 15 hotels, which are mostly in secondary market.

Condor Hospitality to explore hotel portfolio sale, mostly in secondary markets

US REITs raise $3.5B through ATM programs in Q1