Post Road Management, a Pennsylvania-based investment firm, has bought 11 multifamily housing complexes in Wichita since July, according to county records.
The company now owns about 1,500 apartment units in Wichita, said Borko Milosev, owner of Post Road Management. Before this year, the company already owned three multifamily complexes in the city.
“That would make them one of the largest [multifamily] owners in Wichita,” said Jeff Englert, a senior vice president and managing partner with NAI Martens who specializes in multifamily and investment properties. “I mean, probably in the top five.”
But the new owner said it won’t be accepting housing choice vouchers, a form of rental assistance for low-income people and families. That means hundreds of units are no longer available for voucher-holders, who city officials say are already struggling to find housing in an increasingly tight rental market.
Post Road bought 10 of the multifamily housing complexes from a variety of LLCs registered to the address of Anderson Crain Investment Group, a local real estate investment firm owned by Graham Crain. The Pennsylvania-based company’s investment in Wichita follows a trend toward out-of-state investors in Wichita’s multifamily real estate market, Englert said.
As property values spiked on the coasts following the pandemic, he said investors sought out lower-value properties in markets like the Midwest.
“The investors will start looking at markets they haven’t considered previously because the returns have gotten so low in the other markets,” Englert said.
Milosev said that the company invested in Wichita for a variety of reasons: the diverse economic and employment base as well as the affordability in comparison to other markets.
The company plans to make renovations and improvements to the properties, but Milosev said tenants will not have to vacate apartments during the process.
The decision not to accept housing vouchers is another change coming to the apartments under Post Road’s management.
Taylor Clay
/
KMUW
Former owners did accept the vouchers: 107 units across eight complexes that Post Road owns are currently occupied by voucher-holders, according to the city.
Milosev said he doesn’t have any concerns about the tenants who hold vouchers but cannot handle the costs of the regulations that come with accepting the vouchers.
“We try to run our business efficiently and don’t have the staff to deal with additional needs that are associated with vouchers,” Milosev said.
Sally Stang, the city’s housing director, said she’s concerned by the influx of out-of-state real estate investors entering the market, especially those who aren’t accepting government rental assistance.
She said it’s difficult for people with vouchers to find housing right now because of the tight rental market and the limit on landlords who will accept them. The city issues about 3,000 vouchers, and Stang estimates that 500 people who have received them can’t find housing.
“We’re in a critical state,” she said. “The housing market has tightened a lot. There are fewer vacancies than we’ve had in the past.”
The city is actively seeking more landlords to participate in its Housing Choice Voucher program, and Stang said the city is streamlining the program to make it more attractive to landlords.
Milosev said that existing tenants in Post Road’s apartments who currently hold housing choice vouchers will be offered a renewed lease by the company.
