Video: Single-family rentals and the ‘private equity bogeyman’

Single-family rentals, or SFR, is becoming a “must-have” offering for managers of institutional real estate capital, says PERE senior reporter Kyle Campbell. But when assets are also people’s homes, there are sensitivities.

Corporate owners of SFR have been blamed for running up home prices, elbowing out first-time buyers and employing draconian tactics to secure payments from renters at a time of immense hardship for many.

“Private equity ends up being the bogeyman: the face for a large systemic issue,” says Campbell, who recently authored a deep dive on the topic for affiliate title PERE (registration or subscription required).

In his report, Campbell quotes the chief investment officer of a US public pension, who asked to remain anonymous: “We looked at it and just in general we couldn’t get comfortable with it as a good investment space for a number of reasons. Part of it was, if you have to foreclose and kick people out of a house, what kind of press does that generate? It’s probably not good for us.”