Rental housing economist Jay Parsons dives deep with UDR, America&#x27;s longest-running apartment REIT, sharing the story from UDR&#x27;s founding as a small Virginia operator in the 1970s to its growth into an S&amp;P 500 company — and the many turns along the way. UDR&#x27;s chief financial officer, David Bragg, joins the podcast and covers a wide range of topics from thoughts on the AvalonBay/Equity Residential merger to stock buybacks to managing apartments without leasing staff on site. Additionally, Jay gives his take on the big headline of the week: The U.S. Senate and House reached agreement on the ROAD to Housing Act, clearing its path to passage. What does that mean for single-family rentals and build-to-rent? Jay summarizes the legislation and its potential impact. Also, Jay shares the latest Census data on multifamily starts, and why you should take that data with a heavy grain of salt.

EP#89 David Bragg | Inside UDR Apartment REIT

The Rent Roll with Jay Parsons

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Rent Roll with Jay Parsons

## Participants

- **Jay Parsons** (None)
- **David Bragg** (UDR)

## Transcript

Welcome to episode number 89 of The Rent Roll, your podcast on all things rental housing, apartments, single-family rentals, and build to rent. On the road this week, coming from Omaha, the College World Series happening right now. Great event and also a very underrated city in my opinion. Omaha is a great place to visit. And now heading to New Orleans, where I hope to see many of you there at the National Apartment Association's annual Shindig Apartmentalize.

So today, we're going to dive deep into one of the big apartment REITs, UDR. We're going to talk about the fascinating history of a company that started as Old Dominion, based in Richmond, Virginia in the 1970s, and its growth to becoming an S&P 500 company. And then later, we'll be joined by UDR's Chief Financial Officer, Dave Bragg. And a lot of things to talk about with Dave right now, and a lot of things I'm excited to pick his brain on.

Obviously, the announced merger between Avalon Bay and Equity Residential, two of UDR's peers slash competitors. The weak stock prices we've seen across the REIT sector relative to net asset values, all the implications that that has on the market with assets trading below the net asset value.

And the rebound of apartment fundamentals, obviously, coming out of that high supply period, what's UDR seeing right now. And also we'll talk about UDR's tech-focused or tech-forward operations, which that includes some apartment properties that operate without any on-site leasing staff. And yet, they still report strong leasing and high retention rates. So lots to cover there. And then we also have some breaking news this week. We finally have a deal on the Road to Housing Act.

This is that big housing package that also includes some new regulations around build to rent and sing-a-family rentals. We'll get into that. But the House and the Senate have come together on a compromise, and we're going to break that down in today's In the News segment. All right. Before we dive in, let's give a big shout-out to our sponsors. First and foremost, a big thank you to JPI, a leading apartment developer with a stated purpose to transform, building, enhance communities, and improve lives.

Check them out at jpi.com. JPI is the cutting edge of some really exciting innovations in apartment development and construction, finding ways to build oftentimes quicker and more efficiently. Also, a big shout-out to Madera Residential. Check them out at madereresidential.com. And also, a big thank you to Funnel, the AI and CRM platform you can find at funnelleasing.com that, of course, Funnel, the sponsor of our interview segment.

Okay. So as always, kick it off with the section we call Here's a Chart. Instead of a chart, we've got a timeline. We're going to do the brief history of UDR ahead of our conversation with UDR CFO Dave Bragg later...

EP#89 David Bragg | Inside UDR Apartment REIT

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

EP#89 David Bragg | Inside UDR Apartment REIT

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.