W&D Creates Team for Single-Family Rental Homes, Build for Rent
Growth in the sector is expected to surpass multifamily, office, retail, storage, and hospitality within the next few years.
Walker & Dunlop has created a dedicated team to provide guidance into the single family rental home and build-for-rent space. The development underscores the increasing popularity in the $3.4 trillion SFR market, which has seen exponential growth over the past year as COVID-19 has disrupted migration patterns. Build-for-rent properties, a sub-segment of SFR that are purpose-built housing to be operated as single-family rental investments, currently make up about 10% of new home construction.
The firm’s dedicated SFR & BFR Practice Group consists of 13 professionals that will provide guidance on construction, bridge lending, permanent financing, structuring equity, and property sales. It is led by Cliff Carnes, senior vice president and capital markets western region chief production officer, Ted Patch, chief production officer of the company’s Multifamily Finance group, and Kris Mikkelsen, executive vice president of Investment Sales. The team has raised capital for over $872 million in the sector and has an active pipeline of $1.4 billion.
“The SFR/BFR space will be a very significant part of the rental market’s growth for years to come,” Carnes said. “Conventional multifamily properties alone cannot keep pace with demand for housing as the number of renters in the US grows. With market demand continuing to outpace supply, the SFR and BFR space will continue to attract renters, developers, owners, and investment dollars.”
Magnify Capital estimates the SFR market’s value at around $3.4 trillion, compared to $3.5 trillion for the multifamily asset class. Growth in the sector is expected to surpass multifamily, office, retail, storage, and hospitality within the next few years, according to Walker & Dunlop, and Morningstar data shows that rents in institutionally owned SFR portfolios have grown more than 3% annualized in 2020.
Earlier this month, brokerage giant JLL also announced the creation of a team dedicated to the SFR space. That group led by JLL’s National Multi-Housing Group head Bill Miller, was formed in direct response to increasing institutional interest in the sector.