By Builder
There’s no lack of intrigue when it comes to one of the housing industry’s hottest sectors—build-to-rent (BTR). There’s an appetite for information and data that can help builders better understand the space. Zonda senior managing principal Tim Sullivan interviewed three of the industry’s leading voices at PCBC in Anaheim, California, in late May. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Tim Sullivan: We are here to share some insights, and you’re going to hear diverse takes on different operators’ approaches to BTR, because one size does not fit all.
This BTR space came from the Great Recession, because there were some very intrepid investors out there that realized, “We could buy a whole bunch of products at replacement cost.”
Then they got smart and realized that we don’t have to buy just one by one, we can buy a whole bunch of ones. There were some institutions that were created from it, and it became a smart way to invest, particularly when we were in a Great Recession.
Then suddenly, the intrepid investor said, “Wait a minute, we can go straight to the builders, and we can buy at a discount. We don’t have to use a Realtor.”
