The investment sales market for Triangle apartments shows no signs of cooling  off.

This week, a New Jersey firm, Heritage Capital Group, paid $51.5 million for  two communities in Raleigh and one in Cary, according to Wake County property  records.

The purchase price was $7.45 million more than the seller, The Embassy Group  of Airmont, N.Y., paid for the properties in 2008 and 2009.

All three communities – The Lakes and Arden Woods in North Raleigh and  Williamsburg Manor in Cary – were built in the 1970s.

Representatives for Heritage didn’t return a call seeking comment late  Wednesday.

Embassy specializes in investing in apartment communities that are between 20  and 30 years old. Its purchase of The Lakes and Arden Woods in late 2008 was one  of the first signs indicating how far apartment values had fallen in the  Triangle.

Values have recovered faster than many expected.

The three communities Heritage purchased comprise 964 units.

The purchase price, about $54,000 a unit, is impressive even when you factor  in the money Embassy spent improving the properties, said Jim Scofield, CEO of  the Raleigh real estate company Apartment REP.

Investors have been flocking to multi family properties, which offer strong  cash flow and are improving much faster than other commercial real estate  sectors.

“Multifamily, many will say, offers the best risk-adjusted return in the  market compared to office and retail,” Scofield said. “And real estate is a  great hedge against inflation.”

The turmoil in the single-family housing market, combined with the lack of  new construction in recent years, is causing both occupancy and rental rates to  rise in the Triangle and elsewhere.

The Triangle apartment market had an occupancy rate of 93.5 percent in the  first quarter, up 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier, according to MPF  Research, which analyzes apartment data in 64 U.S. metro markets.

The average rent was $820, up 3.9 percent from a year ago.

Though new office construction remains at historically low levels, developers  are moving ahead with numerous new apartment projects across the Triangle.

BY DAVID BRACKEN – Staff Writer, N&O