PHOENIX, ARIZONA (October 24, 2022) – Trevor Koskovich, president – investment sales, recently shared his insight into the single-family rental/build to rent (BTR) market in an article published by Business Insider titled: “Online real-estate investment firm Fundrise is paying way over housing-market value for some build-to-rent communities. Here’s why it says it’s still a winning strategy.”
The story used Cypress Bay-Homes for Rent as a case study into Fundrise’s reasoning behind its recent purchases. The company purchased the community in 2022 for $45.7 million in debt and equity, making the average price paid per home at $525,287.36–a 42 percent increase over the starting price for the most expensive model down the block and a much larger increase over smaller model homes. But when Cypress Bay is evaluated as an apartment building, rather than a collection of homes, it is clear Fundrise got a great deal.
Koskovich discussed some historical context of the market environment in which Cypress Bay has existed and how it fit into larger trends observed in BTR. The same bidding dynamics that existed in the traditional residential housing market have existed with these larger communities as well. It wasn’t unusual for these types of assets to receive 10 to 15 bids each, Koskovich says, though he didn’t provide commentary on specific deals.
“We were experiencing many of the same things as people who were trying to buy a home,” Koskovich said. “A property would be listed at $700,000 but end up selling for $850,000. The same story was going on in our industry, except trade thousands for millions.”
This dynamic outpaced home prices for some time, with Koskovich saying that many homes were selling more to institutional buyers than they would to owner-occupiers in the same area. But times are changing.
Other topics include:
- How does the housing market affect BTR
- Fundrise versus other innovatros (and the critics)
- How to value build-to-rent communities
