Multifamily investors want to buy properties, but are waiting for clarity on price discovery before pulling the trigger on deals.

It may be months before buyers and sellers understand what apartment properties are worth in an economy hobbled by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

In April, buyers and sellers of apartment properties largely focused on out how to complete deals negotiated before the COVID-19 pandemic led to a near complete shutdown of economic activity. As a result, the number of deals closed was a fraction of what investors had bought the year before.

The economy is now slowly restarting, despite COVID-19 cases still on the rise in many states. Buyers and sellers are assessing the extent of the damage—and what it will mean for property values. The mass wave of unemployment—more than 40 million Americans have now filed in recent weeks—will undoubtedly affect market rents. Until this is all sorted out and there is price discovery in the market, expect investment sales volume to remain low.

“This will not be a V-shaped recovery and there will be long-term effects,” says Andrew Rybczynski, managing consultant at CoStar Group. “Total rent growth at the end of the year is highly unlikely to be as positive as it would have been and vacancy is likely to be higher than at the same time last year.”