Blackstone’s REIT Buying Binge Continues as It Agrees to a $3.7 Billion Apartment REIT Deal

Blackstone Group is at it again. The private-equity giant is buying another real estate investment trust (REIT). This time, it’s paying $3.7 billion to acquire Resource REIT, a non-traded REIT focused on owning apartment buildings.

This deal is Blackstone’s second notable apartment REIT transaction in recent months. Last month, some of its real estate affiliates agreed to acquire Bluerock Residential Growth REIT. They’re paying $24.25 per share ($3.6 billion overall), implying a whopping 124% premium to its share price before Bluerock started exploring a sale. Again, the draw is a portfolio of high-quality apartments located across some of America’s fastest-growing cities in the Sun Belt region.

Two factors are driving this acquisition spree. First, BREIT is hauling in an enormous amount of investor capital. It raised more than $22 billion last year, nearly 70% of all the money raised by non-traded REITs in 2021. That has given it a tremendous amount of firepower to make acquisitions.