Real estate investors are increasingly utilizing a “forward purchase” structure to acquire desirable assets early in their life cycle. In a forward purchase transaction, a buyer and seller enter into a purchase and sale agreement at a set or calculated price for an asset that is either in pre-development or under development but not yet complete. This Legal Update discusses the structure of a forward purchase transaction and comments on its effect on financing, its use in REIT share sales and the wrinkles added by the new opportunity zone provisions under US tax law.
