Swiss Investment Firm Acquires 3,500+ U.S. Single-Family Homes For $1 Billion

The Swiss-based private equity firm Partners Group announced yesterday that it has acquired a $1 billion portfolio of single-family rental homes located across 17 states in the Sunbelt region.

The portfolio comprises 2,528 recently constructed single-family rentals and over 1,000 homes currently under construction. The majority of the properties are located in Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma.

The announcement was made shortly after The White House announced President Biden’s plan to ease the burden of housing costs, which includes addressing the growing share of single-family home purchases by investors.

According to data from CoreLogic, investor purchases accounted for more than 22% of all single-family home purchases made nationally during the first three quarters of 2021. Almost a quarter of the investor purchases were made by large investors with 100 or more properties.

Real estate investment companies have been focusing heavily on Sunbelt states as job growth has been accelerating migration trends and boosting the demand for single-family homes in these areas.

Approximately 82% of Invitation Homes’ INVH portfolio of over 82,000 single-family homes is located in the Sunbelt region. Fundrise has acquired over 260 rental homes in these markets over the past seven months through its Goldman Sach’s GS backed Interval Fund and Growth eREIT.

The demand for rental units is expected to remain strong as interest rate hikes have pushed mortgage rates to their highest level in over a decade. While higher mortgage rates have cooled the housing market in some areas, it’s also made homeownership less affordable at a time when many Americans were already being priced out of the market.

Many retail investors are also taking advantage of the opportunities in single-family rental investments through private equity investment platforms. Investors can buy equity shares of single assets or portfolios of income-producing properties. Browse current offerings on Benzinga’s Alternative Investments Hub.

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