One of the new things many developers are looking at is the “Build to Rent” housing market. Prompted mainly by younger homebuyers being priced out of the housing market by ever-increasing prices, developers have seen an opportunity to help them move into a new home.
The “Build to Rent” developer focuses on small rental homes, located in areas well served by public transport and in cities with great economic dynamism and a great demographic movement. Many renters are choosing long-term rental as their option.
Viking Carrier
PFS Corporation
Mariotti Building Products
The working-from-home crowd is moving to rentals since they don’t have to uproot their family when and if they change employers. Working from home means security for them.
The majority of single-family home rentals in the US are privately owned and managed with only +/- 3% being under professional management. Under the build-to-rent model, a community of single-family homes is developed with the intention of appealing to the rental market, and the community operates similarly to a traditional multifamily asset.
The real innovation in the build-to-rent space lies in the improved experience for tenants. BTR provides tenants with all of the best aspects of single-family rentals and upgrades the experience by developing all homes inside a professionally managed, amenity-rich community all without burdening residents with HOA costs.
Not only will young people begin accepting this type of housing but Boomer’s downsizing will be attracted to renting over owning as well. Families thrive in Build to Rent properties because each property features a private backyard, providing each family with ample space to raise their kids.
Unlike the multifamily developer that rents apartments and townhouses, the single-family rental developer will have more of an investment, especially in meeting single-family home zoning requirements for their area. Many will be required to have garages rather than carports.
Look for higher rents for these homes but I’ll bet people will be lining up at the door wanting to rent one as the word about this type of community spreads.
For the modular housing industry, this could prove bigger than Hurricane Sandy when thousands of modular homes were built in a short period of time. This could actually see many new modular factories being opened simply to build a limited number of standard plan single and two-story homes being built.
If you are a “Build to Rent” developer and haven’t looked into modular yet, be sure you do as getting your homes up and rented will never be faster than going with anything other than modular!
Gary Fleisher is the Managing Director and contributor for Modcoach News and Modular Home Coach.
Email at modcoach@gmail.com
One Response
Gary..I recall that I used to attend the after lecture Q and As sessions at many a housing show. Best Q&A answers I frequently heard was "well that depends!" Amen.
Best possible solution of course under current conditions would be.. in my opinion …to utilize a totally vertically integrated, totally dedicated commercial(not custom SFDs) mod plant and organization currently successfully doing only commercial type modular mid size projects, turnkey or semi so period. ..as the say …the devil is in the details. Yes, I concur… your right on again! Bill