Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Adam Kramer: Great, thanks. I’ll leave it there. I appreciate the time.

Operator: Our next question comes from Wes Golladay with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Wes Golladay: Hi everyone. You mentioned getting — I think, repaid on $100 million extra in the structured finance. Do you have a timing estimate on that? Do you — is there any chance you extend that? And then when looking at the entire structured finance book, is there any geographic concentration?

Barb Pak: Hi Wes, it’s Barb. I think for now you could assume mid-year on the $100 million is probably a safe assumption. I think we have some in the first half of the year and some in the back half of the year. So mid-year assumption is good there. And then in terms of geographic concentration, our portfolio is actually, it mirrors our actual portfolio in terms of our investments. So about 40% in Northern California, 40% in Southern California, and 20% in Seattle is how the portfolio aligns in terms of where it’s located geographically.

Wes Golladay: Great. That’s all from me.

Operator: Our next question comes from John Kim with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

John Kim: Thank you. On the 5.3% renewal rate growth achieved in October, can you break that down between how much of that was rate growth versus concession burn-off from a year ago?

Jessica Anderson: Hi, John, it’s Jessica. Yes, that — it’s roughly 50-50. So we’re seeing about 2.5% to 2.8% or so in rate growth and then the rest is concession burn-off.

John Kim: So when you compare the concessions that you mentioned earlier that you’re offering versus the year-ago, is that additive to rental rate growth going forward?

Jessica Anderson: Where we sit right now it is additive. So last year we were at roughly two weeks, pretty consistently across Q4. And right now, we’re sitting at a week. Like I said earlier, we may increase the volume of concessions and the amount, but we’ll monitor that. But as of right now, that’s a positive.

John Kim: Okay. Has there been an update on the gross delinquency outlook for the second half of this year, it was last at 1.9%. I think you basically there, including October, has that changed at all?

Barb Pak: Hi, John, it’s Barb. We didn’t make any changes to our guidance for the full year. We believe we’re on target for that. There may be puts and takes and if delinquency does come in favorable, there maybe a trade-off with occupancy. And so net-net, we’re in line with our full year guidance.

John Kim: Okay, thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from John Pawlowski with Green Street. Please proceed with your question.

John Pawlowski: Good morning, thanks for the time. Barb, I have a question about the potential deferred repair and maintenance and CapEx costs that might be in the portfolio today associated with delinquent tenants. Have you — could you give us an order on that, a sense, like an order of magnitude of the total amount of dollars you think that needs to get spent over the coming years on these units? I’m just trying to get a sense of whether early innings is seeing the cost flow through from evictions or you’ve already worked through most of it?

Angela Kleiman: Hey, John, it’s Angela here. So let me give you just a high-level answer to that, because, frankly, what we’re seeing is the turnover as it relates to delinquent tenants is not — the higher level of CapEx is not material relative to in the past when we have delinquent tenants and some actually have just decided to leave. And so the turnover just sort of natural turn, and there’s going to be bad actors from time to time, but once again, it’s at a comparable rate as pre-COVID. And so that’s why there isn’t a number that Barb can point to. Our CapEx at this point is really more driven by other activities like storm damage and as far as the eviction is concerned, it’s a higher volume, but it’s not greater damage because of evictions.