Multifamily deal volume surged to $146B in 2024, and analysts are expecting even more sales this year as investors indicate they're ready to deploy more capital.

Deal volume in 2024 was up 22% over 2023, fueled by large transactions like Blackstone’s $10B acquisition of Apartment Income REIT Corp. in June, Multifamily Dive reported using MSCI Real Assets data.

Another significant transaction was Equity Residential agreeing in August to buy 11 multifamily properties from Blackstone for nearly $1B.

Portfolio and entity-level deal volume increased 54% to $35B in 2024, with a 261% surge to $7.9B in the fourth quarter, according to the data. The largest portfolio trade in Q4 was affordable housing developer Standard Communities’ $1B acquisition of 6,000 multifamily units across four states.

But individual asset sales were significant to overall deal volume, too, with a surge in Q4, Multifamily Dive reported. Individual asset sales increased 12% to total $110.9B in 2024. Q4 sales increased 47% to $37.5B, the data shows.

Sales of mid-rise, high-rise and garden-style properties also increased in 2024, led by a significant boost in Q4. Garden-style deals rose 14% to $83B for the year, with about $26.6B of that coming in Q4, a 55% quarterly increase.

Mid- and high-rise sales increased 35% to $62.9B in 2024, with Q4 volume rising 78% to $18.8B.

Investors expect the upward trend to continue into 2025. A CBRE survey released last week found that 70% of commercial real estate investors plan to buy more assets this year than last. Just 1% of investors said they plan to buy less in 2025, a stark contrast to the 58% who planned to buy less in 2023.

Multifamily is by far the asset class preferred by investors, with 72% of respondents saying it is what they are most interested in. Industrial and logistics was the second-most popular sector. Thirty-seven percent of investors said they favor that asset class.

Just under 50% of investors plan to sell more in 2025, according to the CBRE survey.

“This dynamic will likely create more competition for assets and allow pricing to firm even as rates remain somewhat elevated,” the survey report states. “All of this will be supported by additional capital, with all investors either maintaining or increasing their allocations to real estate.”

The Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts and pro-growth policies proposed by the Trump administration have likely lessened concern about diminishing values of portfolios, according to the survey report.

A slight majority of investors said favorable pricing is a reason they will increase allocations, the report states. Prices did fall in 2024, but the rate of decline steadied, Multifamily Dive reported. Apartment prices dropped 4.2% year-over-year in Q4, a moderation from the 13.3% year-over-year drop in Q3 2023, according to the RCA Commercial Property Price Index for apartments.

“Investors are preparing to deploy more capital into the U.S. commercial real estate market this year, drawn by the attractive pricing environment and strong fundamentals,” Kevin Aussef, Americas president of investment properties for CBRE, said in a statement.

Cap rate increases also moderated in 2024, according to the MSCI data. Cap rates rose 10 basis points in Q4 2024 from a year earlier, a noticeable contrast to the 70 basis points cap rate increase from Q4 2022 to Q4 2023.