Market Insights
February 8, 2021
5 min read
Build For Rent: Single Family Living with Multifamily Appeal
Build for rent single-family communities (BFR) is the hottest...
The business model for BFR can be traced back as far as the1980s, however single-family rentals really weren’t seen as an institutional asset class until the aftermath of the 2000s housing bubble. With banks holding tens of thousands of bad mortgages on their books, institutional investors seized the opportunity to purchase these properties in bulk at steep discounts. Over the next 8 or so years, institutional investors slowly began participating more in the single-family rental space, yet mostly as scattered single-family rentals with properties spread out amongst neighborhoods of homes for sale. During this time, technology advances and professional property management proved single family rentals as a viable institutional asset class. However, the asset class experienced a major rejuvenation at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as renters sought more space from their multifamily apartments.
Even with the pouring of institutional capital into the single-family rental space, institutions currently only account for 2% of the single-family market, a market nearly equal in size to the multifamily market. In fact, 85%of the single-family market is operated by mom-and-pop owners who control 10 or fewer properties.
So, as we now come out of the pandemic, we have all these renters seeking more space for their lifestyle in a single-family rental, but the current stock of options is largely older, more dilapidated homes that are scattered throughout neighborhoods and often not professionally managed.
With limited availability and affordability in the “for-sale” single family market, millennials and baby boomers alike are turning to the attractive lifestyle that comes with a new BFR community.