Renters are increasingly showing desire for a single-family home with a yard or other outdoor area, a potential golden opportunity for builders to grow the single-family built-for-rent market. “The COVID-19 pandemic has many persons decamping from the big city to outlying areas in search of housing types that are more suburban in nature, which closely mirrors what built-for-rent communities are delivering,” says Scott Adams, senior principal at development company Bassenian Lagoni. The built-for-rent market also offers more no-maintenance homes that could appeal to young adults and retirees, the National Association of Home Builders says.
Outdoor spaces and private yards also are part of what make this form of rental housing more appealing than high-rises in the city, builders note. Renters are looking for privacy and areas for their pets, and they may be particularly drawn to lower-density areas during the pandemic. “The biggest challenge in building built-for-rent properties is blending the two disciplines of single-family building and multifamily investment and development,” says Rich Eneim Jr., vice president and principal of Keystone Homes in Scottsdale, Ariz. “If you’re coming at it from just one of those perspectives, you’ll have some stumbling blocks. You need experience from both to be successful.”
Builders say it is especially important if developers plan to sell the properties in the future. “As people are getting more comfortable at home as part of their lives, this product type is going to be a beneficiary of that,” Eneim says.
Source: “Is Single-Family Built-for-Rent the Future of Rental Housing?” National Association of Home Builders (Oct. 22, 2020)
