Fairfield Drops $462 Million on Phoenix Apartments

A California-based real estate firm has set an Arizona state record for the highest-dollar sale of a multifamily portfolio in the Grand Canyon State’s history.

Fairfield Residential, a multifamily operator and investment manager based in San Diego, paid nearly $462.4 million to acquire five properties in the Phoenix area, the Phoenix Business Journal reported. The portfolio sale tops 3rd Avenue Investments’ previous record-setting $414.5 million multifamily portfolio purchase from Samuel Geltman and Company in 2021.

The first three of Fairfield’s five Phoenix-area acquisitions closed July 18, according to the Business Journal. Fairfield paid $244.8 million to Sunroad Enterprises for the properties totaling 907 units.

That transaction included the 346-unit Lazo Apartment Homes in Chandler for $100.5 million, which previously sold in 2020 for $84 million; the Zone apartment complex in Glendale, consisting of 308 units, for nearly $81.8 million, up from $63.5 million in its last sale in 2019; and the 253-unit Zone Luxe apartments in Glendale for almost $62.6 million, an increase from the $55.4 million sales price in 2020.

On July 23, Fairfield closed on two more apartment complexes, according to data cited by the Business Journal from Tempe-based real estate database Vizzda. Fairfield snapped up the Slate Scottsdale apartments for nearly $97.4 million, a discount from the $114 million that Sunroad paid for them in 2021. Sunroad also took a hit for The Laurel Apartments in Chandler, offloading it to Fairfield for $120.2 million, down from the $125 million the seller paid for the complex in 2021.

Fairfield Residential’s acquisitions bring the Phoenix metro area’s total year-to-date sales volume of apartments to more than $2.4 billion, according to the Business Journal. Phoenix multifamily sales in the first half of 2025 were up 4 percent from the same period in 2024 and were 40 percent higher than the first half of 2023, which marked an eight-year low at the time. — Chris Malone Méndez