Sam Zell and Mark Parrell

“As Mark Twain said, the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” Equity Residential Founder and Chairman Sam Zell said during a taping of CBRE’s “The Weekly Take” podcast in April. “So, to that, I say that reports of the death of office space are greatly exaggerated.”

The same could be said of Equity Residential. The real estate investment trust’s vast holdings — including 77,889 housing units spread across 304 properties in marquee metro areas — served as a bellwether for the punishment inflicted on pandemic-era urban real estate. Equity’s income plummeted 58 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2020, after months of dropping rents and making concessions to keep and attract tenants.

Today, however, the portfolio has proven resilient, showing signs of life in markets across the country. Company representatives on a first-quarter 2021 earnings call in April chalked it up partly to an incredible demand for urban amenities and lifestyle.

Equity’s Mark Parrell said during the call that the firm’s apartments are 98 percent occupied, even before entering peak leasing season, and that outside of San Francisco and New York, pricing in markets will recover completely to pre-pandemic levels by the end of May. Bargain hunters are seeking deals, and, with large companies like Google and JPMorgan Chase taking firmer-than-expected positions on returning to the office at least part time, the myth of large-scale, urban flight seems even more a figment of earlier fears.

The recovery of downtowns, it seems, is Equity’s gain, especially with its store of capital to invest when the urban recovery truly takes flight post-Labor Day.

Overall, Equity has been quiet on the deal front this year, selling a Santa Monica apartment complex for $40 million in April, part of a strategy of selling appreciating assets in California. But that may not be the case for long. On that same April call, Parrell hinted at a potentially busy upcoming quarter, with a focus on Denver, the company’s only non-coastal market, and analysts have hinted at potential Sun Belt expansion.—P.S.