Billions have been funneled into the single-family built-for-rent housing market since just last year, with many investors being foreign. Just as U.S. investment firms are spotting a promising opportunity, so are overseas investors, who entered these markets just a few years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. Now, foreign investors make up one-third of institutional investment in single-family rental homes.
Big foreign investment firms that buy office buildings, hotels and shopping centers around the world have a new favorite real-estate play: single-family homes in American suburbs.
These institutions are partnering with U.S. housing companies to buy or build rental homes by the thousands. In suburban neighborhoods near cities such as Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix, blocks of families are sending monthly rent checks to ventures backed by Canadian pension funds, European insurers, and Asian or Middle Eastern government-run funds.