Single-family rental growth is expected to outpace multifamily, office, retail, storage, and hospitality growth by 2022, according to a new report by Walker & Dunlop.

The single-family rental and build-for-rent sectors are among those with the strongest growth across all asset classes, with institutional investor interest in the space booming. While traditionally the SFR market has been dominated by individual or small-scale investors, the Great Recession changed all that—and the trend has only accelerated under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, which threw new migration patterns into the mix. 

And where that demand has grown, institutional capital has followed. Walker & Dunlop estimates the SFR market to be valued at around $3.4 trillion—a staggering number, to be sure, when compared to the entire multifamily market, which is estimated at $3.5 trillion.