Multifamily/Apartment/Condos

Everything from a duplex up through a multi-hundred unit apartment building can be included in Multifamily/Apartment Condos. The term multiplex can be divided into duplex denoting two-unit rental properties, triplex denoting three-unit, quadruplex denoting four-unit, quintuplex denoting five-unit and so on. Number of stories is the general basis of classification of apartment buildings. Buildings with up to 3 - 4 stories are considered low-rise or garden apartments; buildings up to 5 -12 stories are considered mid-rise apartments and buildings with over 12 stories are considered high-rise apartments.

Office

Office buildings are also classified according to their height as low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise. They are also classified as Class A, Class B and Class C depending upon the location and other factors. Class A buildings are the best with regard to their construction and location. Class B buildings are those with less desirable locations though the quality of the building may be high. Class C buildings are of poor construction quality and located in a low-ranking location. Office buildings are categorized as Central Business District (CBD) and Suburban Office Buildings (SOB) according to their location with high-rise buildings in the centre of large cities and mid-rise buildings on the outskirts.

Industrial

Industrial buildings are classified according to size that depends on the use.

• Heavy Manufacturing property is a category to which large manufacturers generally belong to. These are customised greatly with machinery that are used for products for their end users and are difficult to repurpose for others.
• Light Assembly property is simpler and has storage spaces, product lines and office space. These are easy to reconfigure.
• Flex Warehouse spaces consist of industrial and office spaces and are easily convertible.
• Bulk Warehouse spaces are large building spaces used for stocking and distribution. These require easy access by trucks.

Retail

There are several types of retail spaces of various sizes, spatially and business wise, and categories of business.

• Strip / Shopping Center

These are retail properties that are small in size and may be with or without anchor tenants, who are larger retail tenants that attract more customers. Strip centers usually have a mix of small retail stores

• Community Retail Centre

Generally with a space of 150, 000 to 350, 000 sq. ft., these properties are grocery stores, drug stores, etc. and have more than one anchors

• Power Center

Recognized by the presence of major box retailers, power centers contain many smaller inline retail stores. Containing several out parcels, power centers usually have 30,000 to 200,000 sq. ft. of property space.

• Regional Mall

Ranging from 400, 000 to 2, 000, 000 sq. ft of property space, regional malls usually contain a few anchor tenants that may be department stores or big box retailers.

• Out Parcel

Generally larger retail centers have portions out parceled and set aside for individual tenants like banks, restaurants, etc.

Hospitality

Hospitality properties are of different categories according to the services offered by them.

• Full Service Hotels are top-notch hospitality establishments generally located in tourist destinations and central business districts
• Limited Service Hotels are smaller establishments and mostly boutique properties that do not provide some services like room service, convention space, on-site restaurants, etc.
• Extended stay hotels have, as a rule, smaller kitchens and larger rooms as they are intended for people staying for longer periods.

Mixed Use

Mixed use properties are combinations of any of the categories of commercial real estate like Multifamily, Office, Industrial, Retail or Hospitality. Restaurant or retail properties in cities with residences and/or offices above them are the most common form of mixed use properties.

Land

There are several types of land properties according to their location and nature of usage.

• Agricultural land

Undeveloped land such as farm land or pasture land is designated as greenfield / agricultural land. They may be ranches, animal farms, orchards, grain fields, etc.

• Infill Land

Land which is vacant but has been developed earlier and is situated in a city is called infill land. Only those properties that are exclusively associated with the development of real estate in urban areas come in this category.

• Brownfield Land

These are lands that are available for reuse after being previously used for industrial or commercial purposes and later abandoned. Previous commercial uses may have generally made them partly or fully environmentally impaired.

Special Purpose

Apart from the above categories, which form the major portion of commercial real estate, there are numerous other types of CREs that await investors to build structures on them. These properties may be categorized as the miscellaneous classification of CRE. Parking lots, stadiums, theaters, zoos, amusement parks, bowling alleys,etc are some of the special purpose CRE properties.

Single Family Residential Rental Property

Out of the total 140 million housing units in the US around 90 million, which comes to far above 60%, are single family homes. A third of the US rental stock and 11% of the US housing stock are SFR units which number over 15.8 million. Homeownership is becoming increasingly popular and, at the same time, unaffordable for the people. Therefore financial services in the acquisition of SFR has become a need of the hour more than ever.