With interest rates low, many of Post's tenants are considering buying a home. Post saw an opportunity because many of its properties are located in high-demand, urban areas, Senkbeit said.
Apartments aren't built as well as condominiums, he admitted, but newer apartments are typically built well. And conversions provide housing in neighborhoods that would otherwise be unattainable to some buyers, he said. People who can't afford a home in Hyde Park, for example, might be interested in a Post apartment priced at $150,000 to $300,000.
"Our units aren't as big as a single-family home, but for the location and the price, the condo is someone's choice in some neighborhoods," Senkbeit said.
With land prices escalating, he said, apartment complexes are typically 20 percent to 30 percent more valuable to sell as condos than to keep as apartments.
When consulted recently about selling one of its apartment complexes, Senkbeit told me they'd rather convert their apartment complexes to condos themselves, understandably.
The biggest problem investors and developers find in their adamant desire to convert apartment complexes into condos is the fact that some of the most attractive complexes' owners will keep and convert.
Some of the hottest condo conversions to buyers include The Club at Feather Sound and The Quarter at Ybor, and those units aren't even available for purchase, yet, except to VIPs.
The condo conversion trend will likely continue to be hot, as long as apartment complex owners continue to sell profitably to developers and investors seeking to make a profit from selling apartments converted into condos.
Article comments
1 - Scott Schrantz
There are no less than eight condo conversions happening in downtown Reno, Nevada right now. All the closed casinos are being bought, and their hotel towers turned into condos. Nobody's paid this much attention to downtown in 30 years!
Read about the condo rush here.