Greystar Starts its First Built-to-Rent Community in Houston Metro

Greystar has started construction on its first built-to-rent community in Greater Houston.

The development, Summerwell Sunterra, is in Land Tejas and Starwood Land’s master-planned community, Sunterra, in Katy.

The community will have 156 homes with three or four bedrooms. The detached single family homes and townhomes will have access to community amenities including Sunterra’s planned lagoon and lazy river, playgrounds, parks and tennis courts.

While prices for the rentals have not been disclosed, for-sale homes in Sunterra range from about $300,000 to $800,000.

The average price of single-family rentals in Greater Houston was about $2,340 in August, marking the second-highest rate on record as prices have been steadily increasing, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.

Single-family home leasing has experienced robust growth. Leasing volume increased 12 percent in August to 4,096, the third-highest volume ever recorded in Greater Houston.

“Katy is a booming suburb of Houston, and Sunterra is currently the top-selling master-planned community in Texas,” said Brian Herwald, the Houston-based managing director of development for Greystar.

Sunterra is the third best-selling master planned community nationwide, according to RCLCO Real Estate Consulting. The 2,300-acre community saw a 49 percent increase in sales year-over-year in 2023 with a total of 669.

Development began in 2021 with homebuilders such as Chesmar Homes, D.R. Horton and Perry Homes at the forefront.

Greystar’s Build for Rent business is managed nationally through Summerwell, across about 50 communities comprising nearly 10,000 homes. This initiative focuses on boosting single-family housing supply in high-demand markets.

Demand for built-to-rent communities has surged in Houston, driven by the fact that buying a home in the city and its suburbs has become less attainable due to high prices and soaring interest rates.

Nearly 2,000 built-to-rent single-family homes have been built in Houston in the past five years, ranking it fourth in the nation, according to RentCafe. Houston ranked third in the nation in upcoming built-to-rent communities, with roughly 2,600 single-family units under construction.