Institutions Rev Up Their SFR Game

Single-family rental homes; the National Rental Home Council has estimated institutional ownership at less than 2%. (Photo courtesy of NRHC)

IRVINE, CA—Institutions are stepping up their game again in the single-family rental arena, ATTOM Data Solutions said Thursday. That’s the case even as average returns in the sector have reached a nine-year low in 473 US counties.

“After a drop-off in single family purchases by both individual and institutional investors over the past two years, we’re starting to see investor acquisition activity pick up again,” says Daren Blomquist, SVP at Attom. Given shifting attitudes toward homeownership that are showing up in stubbornly low homeownership rates and our data showing more than 18 million non-owner occupied single-family homes”—comprising about 25% of the total—“these SFR investors will be an important and likely growing force in the real estate market for years to come.”