Build-to-rent explodes in Atlanta — and agents are taking notice

No major U.S. metro area has more single-family rental (SFR) homes owned by institutional investors than Atlanta, with current totals sitting at roughly 72,000 houses — nearly doubling No. 2 Phoenix.

That concentration represents about 30% of Atlanta’s single-family rental market, a share 10 times the national average, according to a new report from the American Economic Liberties Project.

In some individual nearby suburbs, report findings are even starker. Corporations own 78% of all single-family rentals in Paulding County and 64% in Henry County.

The report, titled “The New Rent Seekers,” argues Atlanta did not become the epicenter of corporate landlordism by accident.

It points to federal policy choices after the 2008 financial crisis — from lack of support for small homebuilders to incentivizing bulk acquisitions — as key components in “turning the city into a laboratory for a new asset class.”

For real estate agents working with first-time buyers, the impact is hard to miss, according to Atlanta-based eXp Realty agent Tracy Lovig.

She told HousingWire it shows up in multiple cash offers on homes that need major repairs, as well as in steady conversion of for-sale inventory into permanent rental stock.

“When it’s the average home prices — $400,000 to $600,000, especially $500,000 and under — the investors want to come in,” said Lovig. “And of course, they’re going to come in and bid high to start with, until they come in and do inspections, and then they get them to drop down the price.

“But our first-time homebuyers and medium-income families have trouble buying these homes because of the renovations that do need to be done. They could have old roofs, old HVAC. They’re still functional, but they’re going to have to be replaced.”

Lovig recalled a recent estate sale listed at $500,000.

“We had the 70s tile in the bathroom, the old wood cabinets, paneling on the walls,” she said. “So, tons of stuff needed to be updated in this house, and the ceiling in the basement was sagging. My client was willing to pay $450,000 for it. When I sent the offer in, the agent said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. We have 12 cash offers from investors at full price or higher.’

“My buyer did not have the funds to go over, knowing the work that had to be done to the house. So they got outbid. When it actually went to closing, the investors had gotten them down to $480,000.”

How Atlanta became ground zero

After 2008, Atlanta offered a perfect storm: a swell of foreclosed homes, landlord-friendly Georgia laws with swift eviction procedures and no rent control and a homebuilding industry that had collapsed, the report cites.

Data also shows the number of homebuilders in Atlanta falling by 90% since the financial crisis, from 2,000 to just 200 — with large, publicly traded builders now holding nearly 70% of the market.

During one 12-month stretch beginning in July 2021, investors bought roughly one-third of homes for sale in metro Atlanta — mostly with cash offers at asking price.

Attorney Laurel Kilgour, the report’s author and research manager at the American Economic Liberties Project, said impact varies dramatically by neighborhood — a nuance often lost in industry arguments.

“A lot of the proponents will point to the broadest geography possible to make their point, to sort of underplay what is going on here,” Kilgour said. “So, a lot of times they will talk about the single-digit percentage of institutional investor holdings nationally, or they will look at only the entire Atlanta metro region.

“That doesn’t really tell you much about what the actual control is. They find a variety of ways to sort of downplay it. You really do need to pay attention to what is going on at the neighborhood level.”

The build-to-rent explosion

Atlanta saw more than 3,000 build-to-rent units delivered in 2024 alone — and nearly another 7,000 under construction as of February.

More than one in 10 new homes in Atlanta are now off limits to ordinary buyers before they are even built, the report shows, citing data from rental marketplace Point2Homes.

Kilgour warned that real estate agents should pay close attention to this model, which she called poised to “explode exponentially.”

Since 2019, build-to-rent inventory in Atlanta has soared by 1,381%, data shows.

“The question that comes up with very large tracts of land and development is, is that land going to be Wall Street outbidding everyone else who could use the land for building homes that will be sold to ordinary families?” Kilgour said. “That’s a very significant thing that will change the market fundamentally in a lot of ways.

“You just won’t have as much inventory to sell the more that land is being reserved from the beginning for this emerging build-to-rent pipeline.”

She noted that Pretium Partners — one of the three largest single-family rental owners in Atlanta — has already securitized financial products backed by build-to-rent assets.

“Part of what I’ve looked at is this trend of Wall Street using Atlanta as a testing ground,” said Kilgour. “Real estate agents should be paying attention to what is happening in Atlanta, because that is the future for the rest of the country, if policymakers don’t act now.”

Lovig said she and other agents in her mastermind group have taken proactive steps to understand the build-to-rent trajectory.

Within five miles of her, there are five such communities — two townhome developments and three single-family subdivisions.

“We did go talk to them,” Lovig said. “They do have HOA standards that they’re adhering to. So, we have to go in and reinforce to the buyers and sellers in the area to say, ‘Look, they have an HOA, just like these other subdivisions. They’re going to maintain the subdivisions. They’re not going to let people move in here and just destroy these properties.'”

She added that the rental rates are higher than many assume.

“In our area, they’re going to start about $2,500 or $3,000 a month, so they’re not cheap,” Lovig said. “It’s not something that’s going to come in and drive values down.”

New legislation alters buying behavior

Lovig noted that pending legislation is already shifting investor behavior in Georgia.

That includes the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act — passed by the Senate in March — with provisions barring large institutional investors with at least 350 homes from buying more.

“They have really stopped buying here right now,” Lovig said. “They’ve just gone on a complete hold with this, with what’s happening nationally with proposed legislation — so we’re seeing that. They’re not buying right now, but they’re also not starting to dump the properties, which is a concern. You’ll see one or two here strategically sold.

“If these institutional investors start dumping mass properties, it’s going to drive our pricing down, which is going to hurt everybody. While we need to have a balance for our homebuyers, and especially first-time buyers, we can’t dump it all back into the market either.”

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, who led efforts to include the 350-property cap, offered feedback on American Economic Liberties Project findings.

“This report makes clear what we know to be true — private equity has preyed on Atlanta for nearly two decades and made it more difficult for hard working Georgians to purchase their piece of the American dream,” he stated. “My bill is an important first step in addressing this issue, but there is so much more work that needs to be done. We must remain focused on delivering for the people every single day.”

Impact and education gap

Lovig cautioned against first-time buyers overextending themselves, whether or not they’re feeling the impact of large investor buying activity.

“When you go to meet with a lender, they’re going to tell you you can afford more house than you truly should be comfortable paying for,” she said. “And if you match your budget out on your house, and you have no room for an emergency to happen or things to go wrong in the house, you’re setting yourself up for failure.”

Her advice: start smaller.

“We’ve got to go back to the education piece, especially that budget word that nobody likes to hear,” said Lovig. “If you don’t allow yourself room to save money and save for hard times, you’re going to have to sell your house to an investor that’s going to lowball your offer or lose it in foreclosure, which then allows them to go in and buy, as well.”

Kilgour said she supports measures taken to cap institutional investing — but added that further federal intervention is needed and the tax code remains key.

“There’s no particular reason that we should be giving tax breaks to these large institutional investors when they have such a track record of treating their tenants worse and modestly driving up home prices,” she said. “I think our tax code is structured to incentivize that, and it should not be.

“I think it is reasonable to try to restrict the growth of that model and make sure that is not favored over opportunities for homeownership.”

As agents navigate a shifting status quo, Kilgour also advised watching Phoenix and Dallas, where build-to-rent construction is surging.

“As Atlanta’s starter homes are replaced with purpose-built rentals,” the report concludes, “a generation of Americans will face a future in which corporations own and families rent.”