JF 3873: UC Berkeley Focus, Student Housing Strategy, Value-Add Execution ft. Nhan Nguyen Le

The Best Ever CRE Show

Best Ever CRE

Realestatepodcast, Entrepreneurship, Business, Realestate, Investing, Realestateinvesting, Realestateinvestingpodcast

4.8 • 983 Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Slocomb Reed interviews Nhan Nguyen Le, CEO of Valiant Capital. Nhan shares his journey from growing up in federally assisted housing to leading a $300M student housing portfolio focused exclusively on UC Berkeley. He explains why his firm targets high-demand, location-driven assets and executes a vertically integrated, value-add strategy that includes both renovations and ground-up developments. Nhan also addresses potential risks like university housing policies and political shifts, arguing that UC Berkeley's global brand and housing constraints create long-term demand resilience. Nhan Nguyen Le CEO Based in: Berkley, CA Say hi to them at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nhannguyenle Capital Gains Tax Solutions vikingcapllc.com Join the Best Ever Community The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria. Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at www.bestevercommunity.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Best ever listeners, welcome to the best ever CRE show.
0:03.5	I'm Slocum Reed, and today we are joined by Non Nguyen Lee.
0:07.4	Non is based in Berkeley, California.
0:10.2	He's the CEO of Valiance Capital.
0:13.1	Their current portfolio consists of 27 properties that are over a thousand beds of UC Berkeley student housing with an AUM just over 300 million.
0:27.4	Now, can you tell us a little bit more about your background and this focus on UC Berkeley
0:31.6	student housing?
0:32.3	And our portfolio has grown to over 300 million, close to 1,100 beds across 25 plus assets all within blocks
0:41.4	from from UC Berkeley campus. Where did this focus on student housing come from? Why this?
0:47.3	Really, if we talk about, if I want to take this back a little bit further and how I even got into student housing,
0:55.7	because it wasn't my dream to wake up and say, I want to do real estate.
1:02.5	And it was all, if I were really to take step back, I would say my journey started
1:08.1	when my parents had to leave their country because of the
1:17.1	Vietnam War and started a brand new life in the U.S. And so I was born in Boston, Massachusetts
1:23.1	in the 80s. A few cold winters, my family said, this is not Vietnam. I'm going to move the sunny
1:29.2	California. And we landed in South Sacramento. And I grew up on federally assisted housing
1:36.7	food stamps. It was humble beginnings. As my dad started his landscaping business from scratch.
1:46.1	And my mom learned English to get her manicure license to paint nails.
1:50.8	Thankfully, I worked hard and was able to get a full-rise scholarship to UC Berkeley.
1:56.4	And that was where I knew it was my opportunity as the first person in my generation, my
2:02.3	extended family to attend a four-year university to make a better life for myself.
2:06.9	And I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur early on.
	...

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