Invitation Homes may double its single-family portfolio

The company plans to spend upwards of $300M to buy more homes

Invitation Homes CEO Dallas Tanner (iStock; Tanner via Invitation Homes)
Invitation Homes CEO Dallas Tanner (iStock; Tanner via Invitation Homes)

Single-family rental giant Invitation Homes Inc. is looking to take advantage of low mortgage rates and growing preference for more space over tighter urban living.

The publicly traded company raised $448 million in a share sale in June and plans to use two-thirds of that to buy more properties, according to Bloomberg. CEO Dallas Tanner said that “housing fundamentals are spectacular in the U.S. right now.”

“We can certainly handle much more scale on our platform,” he said. “Is that two times our current footprint? Maybe.”

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The company has been culling its portfolio over the last few years, but it still has around 80,000 properties. Adding another 80,000 may take some time. Many jurisdictions are maintaining restrictions on foreclosures amid the coronavirus pandemic, but a wave of foreclosures may come after moratoriums are lifted.

Tanner formed the predecessor to Invitation Homes in 2005, but like many other single-family rental landlords, the subprime mortgage crisis a few years later was the catalyst for massive growth. A 2012 merger with Blackstone formed Invitation Homes and the following year it became the largest buyer of homes for rent in the country, though the company was criticized for evictions, delayed repairs, excessive fees and aggressive rent hikes.

Invitation Homes became the nation’s largest single-family landlord in 2017 when Blackstone Group and Starwood Capital Group merged their single-family divisions and took it public.

Blackstone sold its remaining stake in the company late last year for around $7 billion. [Bloomberg] ­— Dennis Lynch

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