Institutional investors’ interest in single-family rental housing has been increasing for the past several years, but the recent strong performance amid the COVID-19 pandemic has cemented the asset class as an institutional one that is here to stay. Still, institutional investment in single-family rental homes remains quite low, with approximately 2 percent to 3 percent of the asset class institutionally owned today.

According to Anthony Cazazian, head of U.S. residential real estate at Man Global Private Markets, many institutional investors had remained on the sidelines because they needed insight into some of the uncertainties surrounding the asset class, which really emerged as an opportunity following the global financial crisis. While the past decade has provided confirmation that single-family rentals were more than a post-crisis trade, as well as a longer-term understanding of operating expenses and margins, and demonstrated the asset class could be managed at an in