Bluerock Residential Growth REIT (BRG) Announces 2018 Dividend Rate, Declares First Quarter 2018 Common Stock Dividend

NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc. (NYSE American: BRG) (the "Company") today announced that its Board of Directors has revised the Company's dividend policy for the Company's Class A common stock (the "Class A Common Stock") and set an annual dividend rate of $0.65 per share.  The new dividend rate falls within the anticipated 2018 dividend range announced by the Company in August 2017, and represents a 6.4% annual yield on today's closing price of the Class A Common Stock on the NYSE American ($10.10/share).  Concurrently, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on the Class A Common Stock for the first quarter of 2018, at a quarterly rate of $0.1625 per share.

The Board of Directors considered a number of factors in setting the new dividend rate, including but not limited to achieving a sustainable dividend covered by current recurring AFFO (vs. pro forma AFFO), multifamily and small cap peer dividend rates and payout ratios, providing financial flexibility for the Company, and achieving an appropriate balance between the retention of capital to invest and grow net asset value and the importance of current distributions. 

Additionally, the Company's Board of Directors has approved a change in the Class A Common Stock dividend payment schedule from monthly to quarterly, to be more consistent with industry standards.  This change will affect the frequency of dividend payments only, and will have no impact on the annualized dividend payout.  The change to quarterly dividend payments will commence with the first quarterly dividend payment in 2018, which will be payable in cash on Thursday, April 5, 2018 to Class A Common stockholders of record as of Friday, March 23, 2018.

About Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc.
Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc. (NYSE American: BRG) is a real estate investment trust with a portfolio of institutional-quality highly amenitized live/work/play apartment communities in demographically attractive growth markets to appeal to the renter by choice.The Company's objective is to generate value through off-market/relationship-based transactions and, at the asset level, through improvements to operations and properties. The Company is included on the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 Indexes. The Company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT) for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

For more information, please visit our website at: www.bluerockresidential.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Company's present expectations, but these statements are not guaranteed to occur. Furthermore, the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, of new information, data or methods, future events or other changes.  Investors should not place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements. For further discussion of the factors that could affect outcomes, please refer to the risk factors set forth in Item 1A of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on February 22, 2017,and subsequent filings by the Company with the SEC. We claim the safe harbor protection for forward looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

SOURCE Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc.