Institutional Owners List More Than 9,400 Single-Family Rental Homes For Sale After New Housing Law

According to CNBC, institutional investors that own single-family rental homes have listed more than twice as many properties for sale since early February after new housing legislation barred them from buying additional homes in most cases. Parcl Labs said listings rose from 4,166 on Feb. 1 to 9,447 homes this month, with a combined asking price of $3.1 billion.

The legislation defines institutional investors as those owning 350 or more homes, a lower threshold than the 1,000-home level the industry had expected. Those owners control about 589,000 homes, or 3.9% of the U.S. single-family rental market, and account for roughly 40% of net selling this year, according to Parcl Labs.

The largest landlords, including Progress Residential, Invitation Homes, AMH, Tricon, FirstKey, Amherst and VineBrook, have all been net sellers year-to-date, with 3,180 more homes sold than bought since Jan. 1. VineBrook has nearly 10% of its portfolio on the market, or about 1,900 homes with an asking price of $285 million. Invitation Homes and AMH have 549 and 536 homes for sale, respectively, while Progress Residential has 143.

Stephen Scherr, co-president of Pretium, said in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" that policymakers recognize private capital has an important role in serving renters. He said Progress is focusing on categories the law still allows, including build-to-rent, rent-to-renovate and homeownership-boost programs.

AMH said it has developed more than 14,000 homes for rent in 180 communities since 2017, while Invitation Homes bought Atlanta-based homebuilder ResiBuilt earlier this year. John Burns Research and Consulting's Chris Nebenzahl said the financing case for build-to-rent has changed materially now that the forced disposition mandate has been removed.