A six-building apartment complex on Lafayette Road in Portsmouth has changed hands for $9.4 million, with the buyer eyeing room to grow the property well beyond its current 39 units. Monarch Village, built in 1955 and freshly renovated in 2023 and 2024, now belongs to Avise Properties, which beat out competing bidders for a foothold in the Seacoast's tight rental market.
Fifteen Tours, One Winning Bid
Marcus & Millichap brokered the deal, marketing the property on behalf of seller Monarch Village LLC and procuring Avise Properties as the buyer, according to yieldpro.com. The firm's John Craig, a director of investments in its Boston office, and Tanner Proper handled the listing in association with Thomas Shihadeh, Marcus & Millichap's broker of record in New Hampshire. Per the same account, the brokerage said it conducted 15 tours with buyers from multiple states before landing on Avise, which was “looking to enter the Portsmouth market and leverage its other southern New Hampshire assets.”
Craig described Monarch Village as recently renovated and well-located, the firm's report notes. Located at 3548 Lafayette Road, the property spans 35,579 square feet on a 3.8-acre lot and holds a 39-unit mix of 19 studios, 11 one-bedroom units, seven two-bedroom units and two three-bedroom apartments, per the yieldpro.com report. As Connect CRE also reported, the sale marks Avise's formal entry into the Portsmouth market.
Room to Nearly Double in Size
What may have sweetened the deal further: Monarch Village comes with a fully approved development opportunity for two additional apartment buildings totaling 36 units, a prospect that could bring the community to 75 units upon completion, according to the same report. That kind of built-in upside is rare in a submarket where available land and approvals are hard to come by.
Proper pointed to a broader pattern driving investor interest south of the Massachusetts border. “Portsmouth and southern New Hampshire continue to attract strong buyers who want to avoid potential rent control in Massachusetts and see the opportunity for more significant rent growth,” he said, per the yieldpro.com report. A Massachusetts court order tied to Initiative Petition 25-21 found the measure noncompliant with Article 48's excluded-matters provisions and blocked the Secretary of the Commonwealth from placing it on the 2026 statewide ballot, according to Massachusetts government court document, though the underlying debate over rent control appears to remain a live consideration for investors eyeing New Hampshire.
A Seacoast Market Running Hot
The numbers back up the appeal. Portsmouth posted a 96.8% multifamily occupancy rate in the second quarter of 2026, the highest among submarkets tracked in a report from Colliers, compared with 92.1% in Salem. Statewide, average asking rents climbed 1.9% year over year to $2,093 in the first half of 2026, while New Hampshire absorbed 915 multifamily units against just 783 units of combined new supply across the state and the I-93 Corridor, the Colliers report found.
Investment dollars have followed. New Hampshire multifamily sales volume hit $381.3 million in the first half of 2026, representing 84% of the combined total with the I-93 Corridor, according to the same Colliers report. That half also included TA Realty's $137 million purchase of Siena Tuscan Village, one of the five largest multifamily sales the report tracked in the region this year.
New Supply Keeps Arriving
Portsmouth's rental stock has been swelling well beyond Monarch Village. A January report found more than 1,000 housing units under construction, nearing completion or expected to break ground during 2026, according to Seacoastonline. Among the projects adding to that tally is Marlo on Mill Pond, a 151-unit development from developers Cathartes and Tidemark that was nearing completion, according to REBusinessOnline. Studio rents there were reported to start at roughly $2,450 a month, the outlet noted, underscoring just how much pricing power landlords are commanding in a market where vacancy remains scarce and demand keeps climbing.
