Greystar enters Brazilian multifamily market with Canadian pension fund

Joint venture plans to invest about $185M in São Paulo real estate

CPP Investments CEO Mark Machin and Greystar CEO Bob Faith (Getty; Ian Curcio via Wikipedia)
CPP Investments CEO Mark Machin and Greystar CEO Bob Faith (Getty; Ian Curcio via Wikipedia)

Greystar is moving into the Brazilian multifamily sector through a joint venture with local developer Cyrela Brazil Realty and Canada’s national pension fund.

South Carolina-based Greystar is joining an existing partnership between Cyrela and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board formed in November 2019. The three partners will continue with the joint venture’s targeted $185 million equivalent investment in São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city.

CCP Investments will retain its majority stake in the joint venture. Greystar joins through an expansion of the ownership.

The partnership has three development projects in the works and is eyeing a fourth. Those account for 40 percent of the joint venture’s target equity investment.

A press release described the partnership as “one of the first institutionally owned and operated multifamily real estate platforms in Brazil.”

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Greystar is one of the largest multifamily investors in the United States and recently added 130,000 units to its management portfolio through a $200 million cash deal with Alliance Residential.

The firm had an opportunity to back out of the deal, given the coronavirus pandemic, but went through with it at a previously agreed-upon price. The deal brings its management inventory up to around 660,000 units. Greystar owns about 140,000 itself.

CEO Bob Faith said the firm was in a “pretty good spot.” The Wall Street Journal reported that Greystar had collected 95 percent of its rent in the previous two months, during which some multifamily landlords collected far less.

The firm is also dealing with a lawsuit from prospective tenants in Los Angeles for allegedly collecting information on them without consent.

Last year, Cyrela made headlines when it completed a property sale via blockchain technology — a first in Brazil — in 20 minutes. Usually it takes a month to close such deals.