Opportunity zones were created as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to incentivize investment in struggling communities — kicking off a scramble among real estate investors to identify opportunity zone investments even as the Internal Revenue Service was continuing to clarify its regulatory guidance.

A recent report from Yardi Matrix attempts to quantify the potential size of the opportunity zone market, looking at the multifamily, office and self-storage sectors and identifying the current size of the market, as well as the development pipeline.

The apartment market, in particular, shows significant exposure to opportunity zones. Nearly 20 percent of apartment projects in the development pipeline — defined by the report as those with approvals, or in the process of getting approvals, but that have not yet broken ground — are located in opportunity zones, representing 455,000 prospective units. The metro areas with the most planned or prospective multifam