UBS Warburg REIT Analysts Tour Denver Apartments

DENVER-Denver, and the country, need to create more jobs before apartment real estate investment trusts can see significant improvements. That’s the word from Stuart Seeley and Kevin O’Shea, who head REIT research for UBS Warburg LLC, after they recently toured Camden Property Trust’s holdings in Denver.

The analysts went on the tour in Denver to provide investors an opportunity to see its assets in the market and receive an update on local apartment fundamentals. Despite some encouraging signs — especially the nearly 3% improvement in occupancy in Camden’s Denver portfolio from recent lows — there is no question that Denver is still struggling with the existing supply/demand imbalance and will likely remain quite weak well into 2003, the analysts said.

“Overall, our impression of the Denver market from the Camden property tour is consistent with our thesis that the apartment markets nationally have not yet reached an inflection point beyond which significant improvement in operating performance can be expected soon,” according to their report. “As a result, apartment stocks are not likely to benefit from improved visibility until meaningful job creation is under way.”