Knowing its target segment has been a key pillar to its outperforming multi-family residential strategy, says CIO
Avenue Living Asset Management, a Canadian alternative investment manager specializing in multi-family residential, commercial, agricultural land, and self-storage assets, was founded on the tenet of "Investing in the Everyday."
In keeping with that ethos, the Avenue Living Real Estate Core Trust, an investment fund focused on multi-family rental residential assets, focuses on a particular sweet spot within the spectrum of renters.
According to Jason Jogia, chief investment officer at Avenue Living, many residents in the trust’s portfolio properties are necessary workers who are forced to rent a home due to their stage of life and income level (between $15 and $50 per hour).
“We don’t try to be the landlord of all things to all people,” Jogia said in a recent interview with Wealth Professional. “The average customer at Avenue Living currently earns somewhere between $53,000 and $56,000 a year, and we set our rents to be below 30 percent of their current earnings.”
While some residents who lost their jobs due to lockdowns still benefited from government wage support, typical Avenue Living residents, who are frequently essential workers, have shown themselves to be resilient earners through difficult economic times.
This group of renters has effectively benefited from wage increases in the current environment of inflation and labor shortages.
Even though Avenue Living had to increase the rent to keep up with inflation, it did so in a responsible manner by keeping prices within its customers' range of affordability.
The company has entered strategic partnerships that help keep costs low through efficient supply-chain management and offer flexibility through offerings like Zenbase, a financial health solution that customizes rent payment schedules for those in need of such a service, to help keep costs under control while still committing to best-in-class service.
“We’ve earned the trust of our customers and demonstrated added value in the rent they pay by serving them well operationally,” he says.
To see WP’s full conversation with Avenue Living, presented in a fully interactive digital content format, click here.
