Investor Sam Zell speaks at SALT conference on real estate

The real-estate investor Sam Zell told attendees of this week's SALT conference in Las Vegas that there would be a chance to buy discounted real estate in a couple of years, specifically apartments and office buildings.While prices are less “speculative” now than they were four or five years ago, Zell said, he still suggested now was the time to be adding to your cash reserves, not pushing it into the real-estate market.The controversial billionaire investor, who made headlines last year for using vulgar language when talking about hiring more women in the investment industry, also called President Donald Trump's $2 trillion infrastructure plan “a lot of bullshit.”The billionaire real-estate investor Sam Zell is building up his pool of cash, planning to put it to use in a couple of years.Compared with four or five years ago, prices for real estate have become “less speculative” but are still too high for Zell's taste, the founder of Equity International told attendees of this week's SALT conference in Las Vegas.“I think there's going to be an opportunity” in the next few years, Zell said, to buy cheap apartment and office buildings because of oversupply.“We've seen a lot of apartments built in the last years, we've seen a staggering amount of office space,” he said, saying he didn't believe the demand matched the new construction.Because of this coming opportunity, Zell said “this is the time to accumulate capital.”Read more: Big-money investors are piling into 'opportunity zone' funds in lower-income neighborhoods, but there are a bunch of reasons to be cautiousThe billionaire investor, who was uninvited to UCLA last year because of vulgar comments he made about hiring women and his controversial ownership of the Los Angeles Times, also described the $2 trillion infrastructure plan recently proposed by President Donald Trump and top Democratic leadership as “a lot of bullshit.”“I don't think it's real,” Zell said, while also acknowledging that the country needed infrastructure upgrades.“Public and private partnerships, unless there's a specific project in mind, don't work,” he said.Zell also pushed back on his fellow real-estate developer, saying Trump's immigration stances would not help the country.“I don't think anyone in this room thinks this country is full,” said Zell, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Poland at the beginning of World War II.“We don't have enough competent, qualified, educated people.”Read more: Democrats say Trump has agreed to work on a $2 trillion infrastructure plan, but there's a big catch