Investors continue to add Wilmington-area apartments to their portfolios as the local market flourishes, according to recent transactions and a report released Wednesday.

A combination of apartment buildings and nearby undeveloped land, mainly in the 600 and 700 blocks of St. Andrews Drive, sold for $33.3 million July 1 to AGM Wilmington LLC, according to New Hanover County deeds and property tax records.

The properties that AGM Wilmington bought from St. Andrews Place Apartments LLC and St. Andrews Place II LLC include the complex formerly called Colonial Grand, which is now called St. Andrews Reserve online and on temporary banners that covered Colonial Grand signs at the property last week.

With the July 1 transactions, more than $113 million in apartment community sales have taken place in the Wilmington area, including the $25 million purchase of HunterStone in Leland, since the beginning of the year, according to the most recent apartment market report compiled by Richard Cotton, managing director of Multifamily Realty Advisors. Still Meadow Village, off South College Road, sold for about $19.5 million in April, and Campus Walk I and II, on Racine Drive, sold for $35.75 million in May.

Last year, more than $235 million in local apartment sales took place, the report said.

“I think that this market has been stronger than anyone had anticipated,” Cotton said Wednesday.

More new apartments are on the way. Cotton’s report shows 1,400 units currently under construction, counting 72 in Southport, and 2,180 units included in proposed apartment projects. The occupancy rate, according to the report, is 93.9 percent in the Wilmington market, down only slightly from the 94.5 percent a year ago. Same-unit rents increased by 3.7 percent over the past year.

“It’s impressive because the Wilmington apartment market is actually stronger than the Triangle right now in terms of occupancy and rent growth,” Cotton said.

In the Triangle market, which includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, the current occupancy level is 92.7 percent with same-unit rents increasing by 3.1 percent over last year, according to the Multifamily Realty Advisors report. 

The average apartment rental rate for the whole market in Wilmington is now $907 per month, Cotton said.

To read more about the Wilmington area’s recent apartment boom, grab a copy of the next print edition of The Greater Wilmington Business Journal, available July 17.