By Katia Dmitrieva | Bloomberg
Tricon Capital Group Inc., the Canadian company whose profit rose five-fold last year after betting on U.S. housing in the depths of the slump, now plans to expand into upscale mobile-home parks.
Tricon is looking to buy communities of manufactured homes in the so-called “sun belt” of Arizona, Florida, and California, where selling prices average $60,800, the cheapest of any U.S. region. The Toronto-based company aims to buy assets of about C$750 million ($670 million) in the housing segment, with the first investment possibly this year, according to Chief Operating Officer Gary Berman.
“If you look at the U.S. population, it’s definitely growing, it’s definitely getting older, and it’s probably getting poorer,” Berman, 40, said yesterday at Bloomberg’s office in Toronto. “What single-family rental and manufactured housing do is they provide very affordable housing for people.”
