NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Asia Capital Real Estate (ACRE), a global real estate private equity firm managing capital for institutional and family office investors, today announced that it has launched a Flexible Rent program for renters across the majority of its multifamily properties.
The program, administered by flexible rent technology platform Till, is available to renters in approximately 6,700 units across 33 properties located in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Ohio.
Till’s analytics-driven platform, initially piloted at select ACRE properties in April 2020, sets renters up for success by creating a customized payment schedule that aligns with their individual cash flow, helping them to become consistent, on-time payers. In exchange for renter participation in the program, landlords defer all late fees and eviction proceedings for as long as renters are continuing to comply with the agreed-upon schedule.
In addition to providing the Flexible Rent program to on-time renters, ACRE also expanded to offer Till’s “Rebound” product to help delinquent renters – those already in the midst of eviction proceedings or in imminent danger of eviction – get back on track. Based on these renters’ personal financial situation, the program customizes a long-term plan that allows them to make future rent payments, while making up previously missed payments over an agreed-upon timeline. In exchange for a renter’s enrollment in Rebound, ACRE and other participating landlords agree to suspend eviction proceedings and forgive any late fees or penalties associated with the outstanding rent.
ACRE expects this innovative partnership to not only help struggling renters during the unprecedented economic crisis spurred by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but also create additional long-term stability at their participating properties – particularly in light of national eviction moratoriums that are projected to last at least until the end of 2020.
“We recognized that a one-size-fits-all monthly rent payment doesn’t align with the financial reality of many of our tenants, and, after trying an in-house flexible rent option at one of our properties, we saw the tremendous impact it had in terms of preventing delinquencies,” said Les Menkes, Founding Partner at ACRE. “With the same monthly rent spread out into several chunks, fewer renters are missing payments, which means a decline in renter late fees and evictions — not to mention fewer accounting headaches on the operational side. Till’s data-driven system allows us to roll out a flexible rent offering to virtually our entire portfolio, using cutting-edge technology to offer the right payment plan for each of our residents.”
Till’s Flexible Rent product, which has been rolled out to approximately 170 properties comprising 30,000 units in 14 states, has been adopted by up to 30% of renters at some of these properties. In many cases, participating properties have cut anticipated evictions by as much as 50 percent.
According to Till, a third of delinquent renters who have been offered Rebound have enrolled in the program, and 99% of those are successfully paying their current and back rent.
“While the issues with the status quo in renting are not new — and we began developing this platform prior to the pandemic — the current situation has made the need for a flexible rent solution even more critical,” said David Sullivan, Founder & CEO at Till. “While eviction moratoriums have been enacted, many renters are falling numerous months behind on their payments, and are facing the likely prospect of evictions when the moratoriums expire. Because our platform looks beyond the salary and examines the entirety of a renter’s cash flow, it is able to create a payment plan that is viable even for renters who may be temporarily unemployed — and, in fact, residents value these personalized payment structures and adopt our payment plans much more readily than those historically offered by landlords. Coupled with our agreements with landlords like ACRE to pause evictions on participating renters, this technology will enable us to help them maintain their cash flow and limit the costs associated with delinquent renters.”
Founded in 2011, ACRE is a global real estate private equity firm managing capital for institutional and family office investors through a series of private equity and debt funds with AUM exceeding $2.1 billion. A specialist investor in multifamily housing with a vertically integrated platform, ACRE’s strategies focus on direct real estate equity and credit investments and are concentrated in the United States, with additional properties currently in development in Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom.
Since inception, ACRE has acquired, operated, developed and made loans on over 22,000 apartments across 75 properties and 31 cities.
About Asia Capital Real Estate
Asia Capital Real Estate (“ACRE”) is a vertically integrated private equity firm specializing in commercial real estate through active investments in both direct equity and debt capital markets as well as special situation opportunities. ACRE manages a global portfolio in excess of $1.0 billion concentrated US Multifamily with holdings in the United Kingdom and South East Asia through separate verticals. ACRE has offices in Atlanta, New York and Singapore.
About Till
Till is the nation’s leading provider of Flexible Rent, a product that transforms the renters’ housing experience with personalized solutions. Its proprietary platform provides a detailed analysis of renter cash flow and expenses to break payments into smaller, more manageable increments throughout the course of the month. For landlords, Till provides the ability to provide personalized payment services for their renters, along with advanced property analytics to guide their asset management strategy.
