Ric Campo, chairman and CEO of Camden Property Trust (NYSE: CPT), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2018 Annual Conference.
Camden is celebrating 25 years as a publicly traded company. “I don’t think any of us in 1993 had a clue what the business was going to be like 25 years later,” Campo said. He noted that one of his proudest accomplishments is the fact that Camden has been named to the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list for the past 11 years.
Campo also highlighted some of the tailwinds that are fueling multifamily housing demand. Job growth has accelerated while supply appears to have peaked, he said.
Turning to development, Campo noted that in 2016 and 2017 the company reduced its pipeline in response to signs that supply was peaking in Camden’s markets. Today, the REIT has about $1 billion under development, which provides it with “internal growth and the ability to look out on the horizon and see those lease-ups coming on,” he said.
“Development is still a really good business because you can make a decent return over the acquisition market… I would rather have a little bit more development now, so we’re scouring our land portfolios and trying to move the development pipeline forward a little bit,” Campo said.