Safehold Inc. (NYSE:SAFE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Marcos Alvarado: Yeah. We’re in contact with those first-round Caret investors. Some of them have certainly expressed the desire and willingness to push that data out, given their current capital market environment, but we’re still working on that. I think everybody’s realistic about where that opportunity is today and today’s capital market and where it might be in the future. So we’ll continue to have those conversations.

Kenneth Lee: Got you. Very helpful there. Thanks again.

Operator: Your next question is coming from Haendel St. Juste with Mizuho. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Ravi Vaidya: Hello. Good morning. This is Ravi Vaidya on the line for Haendel. Hope you guys are doing well. Just wanted to talk about the rent coverage for the recent acquisitions. We noticed they’re about half a turn, a little bit more than half a turn inside the portfolio average. Is this due to the fact that apartment rents, apartment rent growth are moderating right now and what the — what’s the — and what’s your minimum threshold when you evaluate different investment opportunities from a rent coverage standpoint?

Jay Sugarman: So I would say we take a more conservative approach in our underwriting process than what I would say reality is. It’s probably a higher vacancy. We underwrite on an untrended basis. You are spot on. We are seeing a slowdown in rent growth. I think this coverage metric is consistent with our policy. It’s obviously on the lower end. But I think the biggest driver is our cost of capital is more expensive, which is obviously pushing up the amount of ground rent in the structure. So attachment point feels good from a leverage standpoint. Look through LTV. But the coverage is a little bit lower.

Ravi Vaidya: Got it. And just one more here. With regards to property type, are we restricting ourselves to just multifamily, last couple quarters, it’s been pretty much focused on that. Is there another asset class that you’d look to explore in the hopes of higher yields and how are you balancing rent coverage, yield and volume given where rates are and given recurring cost of capital is?

Jay Sugarman: There are other asset classes in the pipeline. I think those other asset classes have less liquidity options than the housing space does and so they’re a little bit more difficult to get across the finish line. But we certainly are searching the markets to find exposure outside of multifamily.

Ravi Vaidya: Got it. Appreciate the color, guys.

Jay Sugarman: Thanks.

Operator: Your next question is coming from Rich Anderson with Wedbush Securities. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Rich Anderson: Thanks. Good morning. First, an observation, I’m just looking at the quality of the sell side covering you guys and you should be, I’d say, proud of that, covering you guys since 2017. That’s impressive and so it’s tough times right now. But you got people listening. That’s good. In terms of, Marcos, you mentioned, behaviors of people, just everyone’s moving very slow in this environment. Understood, but won’t there also be some events coming that will kind of force action? Regional banks are cluttered with commercial real estate loans and there’s going to be events that’ll take place or that maybe you can get involved with in a small way with the liquidity that you have or do you think that the tendency is for kicking the can down the road and for there to be sort of a delay tactics taken so that maybe there won’t be transactions that will become available or be forced upon real estate owners anytime very soon?

Just curious what you think of that dynamic.