Home Partners of America lands $460M loan for nationwide rental portfolio

Home Partners of America secured $460 million in financing for a nationwide portfolio of rental homes, including dozens in the metro area.

Citibank provided the loan for the Chicago-based firm.

Home Partners is best known for its rent-to-own program, which lets tenants pick out the home they want to live in before Home Partners buys it. The tenants then have up to five years to decide whether to buy the home themselves from Home Partners.

Cook County records listed some 86 local properties used as collateral on the loan, though the entire mortgage amount includes 1,800 properties in 17 states, according to Asset Securitization Report.

The website said only 45 percent of the properties are eligible for the company’s “right to purchase” program, down from some 95-98 percent in previous financing rounds. That’s because the portfolio serving as collateral for this deal is part of a larger group of homes from a 2016 financing round, and a large number of those homes have expired or non-renewed purchase agreements, Asset Securitization Report said.

Home Partners declined to comment.

After the foreclosure crisis, a number of Wall Street companies started snapping up single-family homes to use for rentals. Now, a new wave of investors is broadening the target group of properties to include those rented by lower income tenants.