Dive Brief:

• Apartment sales rose 1% year over year to $36.7 billion in the second quarter of 2026, according to a report that data firm MSCI Real Assets shared with Multifamily Dive. However, MSCI said the quarter marked “the first simultaneous decline in both individual asset sales and portfolio sales since the beginning of 2024.”
• Without the closing of the Veris Residential $3.4 billion privatization deal, which was the first multibillion-dollar entity-level deal to reach the finish line since 2024, volume would have fallen 8% in Q2. 
• Apartment prices dropped 1.7% YOY in Q2, marking two full years of negative readings in the sector, according to MSCI. Cap rates for garden properties and mid- and high-rise properties averaged 5.9% for Q2. They sat at 4.5% and 4.4%, respectively, in 2022, which were lows for the cycle. A year ago, mid- and high-rise properties held a 30-basis-point discount to garden assets.

Dive Insight:

The second quarter marked a pullback in many segments of apartment sales, after volume had risen over the previous year.

“In the apartment sector, the story we had been following was a slow, steady uptick in deal volume through the end of the year,” Jim Costello, executive director of MSCI Research and Development, told Multifamily Dive. “We found a little bit of weakness in recent months.”

Individual asset sales dropped 7% YOY to $27.6 billion in Q2, after rising between 9% and 44% over the previous five quarters. Transactions fell 19% in April before picking up in May and June, per MSCI.

Portfolio transactions fell 16% YOY in Q2 after seven quarters of growth. Volume fell in April, rose in May and declined in June, marking the first time portfolio trades came in below $1 billion in that month since 2014.

“Portfolio and entity-level sales are a useful tool for institutional investors to gain exposure to a sector quickly when pricing signals suggest stronger returns ahead,” according to MSCI. “Recent weakness in pricing may explain why such megadeals have been limited.”

Garden-style apartment sales dropped 21% YOY to $17.7 billion in Q2, while mid- and high-rise sales were up 36% to $19 billion on the strength of the Veris deal, according to MSCI.

Individual-asset sales of garden properties fell 23% in April, 8% in May and 15% in June, according to MSCI. Mid- and high-rise apartment trades declined 14% in April but rose 19% and 17% in May and June, respectively. 

Overall, the first half of 2026 raised more questions than answers about the trajectory of the apartment sales market.

“You hit high points last year, and right now it's questionable just how much it continues, which is not the same as saying that ‘Hey, it's going to collapse,’” Costello said. “It's just not going to continue. So far it's not growing at the same kind of clip it had been the last two years.”

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