Single-family landlords are going upscale as they bet that more high-earning households will stay in the rental market, Bloomberg News reported. Invitation Homes Inc., the largest U.S. rental house owner, recently formed a $300 million joint venture that is targeting homes that will rent for 30% to 60% higher than the properties it usually purchases. The average rent on the company’s 82,000 homes was about $2,000 at the end of 2021, meaning it could offer homes for between $2,600 and $3,200 a month. The partnership with Rockpoint Group will invest roughly $750 million, including debt, to buy and renovate single-family houses, according to a March 4 statement. If higher-end single-family rentals catch on, landlords may follow a path laid out by the multifamily industry a decade ago, when developers embraced luxury apartments for city-dwelling millennials. Now, those same renters are seeking larger spaces, and many of them either can’t afford to buy a home — at least not in the neighborhood that they’d like to live in — or still prefer the flexibility of leasing.
