Private Equity Now Owns 1 in 8 US Apartments, PESP Report Finds

Private equity’s grip on US rental housing keeps tightening. A new Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) update finds that PE firms now own roughly 1 in 8 American apartments, a footprint built largely in the last four years.

The headline numbers

PESP’s updated analysis shows that, at minimum, private equity firms now own 11,800 apartment buildings with almost three million units in the US, representing about 1 in 8 (13%) apartment units in the country. About half of those units were acquired just since 2021.

Of the nearly 3 million units PE owns, roughly 1.7 million (57%) were acquired since 2018, and over 1.3 million (45%) since 2021. That is a rapid build-up in a short window.

Who owns what

Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, is also the largest owner of apartments in the US, with over 230,000 units. Greystar sits in second place with over 138,000 units.

Blackstone has attributed rising rents to a supply-demand mismatch, noting it owns less than 1% of rental housing in the US and in every country across Europe and Asia where it holds assets, and arguing it has virtually no ability to impact market rent trends.

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Where the concentration sits

More than two-thirds (70%) of total PE-owned units sit in just ten states: Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, North Carolina, Colorado, New York, Arizona, Virginia, and Washington. Texas leads with over 1,900 properties and almost 580,000 units.

Private equity owns nearly one in three apartment units in Georgia (31%) and almost one in four in North Carolina (24%). PE-owned apartments account for more than 30% of overall apartment units in the Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Orlando, and Dallas-Fort Worth metros.

The trade angle

PE’s multifamily build-out matters for landlord economics, regulatory risk, and rent growth assumptions baked into REIT models. The PE playbook is to double or triple the value of an asset within three to seven years by buying buildings, raising rents, adding fees, and then selling.

Affiliates of three of the largest private equity landlords (Blackstone, Greystar, and Cortland) were recently named in a US lawsuit. Watch for any policy or litigation headlines to move sentiment across the listed alternative asset managers and apartment REITs.

Options market and stocks to watch

BX: Blackstone is the single largest exposure here. Watch for flow tied to rent-regulation headlines, litigation updates, and real estate fund marks.

BAM and KKR: Brookfield and KKR both have multifamily and real estate credit exposure. Watch for headline risk and any read-through from BX.

EQR and AVB: Public apartment REITs Equity Residential and AvalonBay set the comparable for rent growth. Watch how Sunbelt rent trends and any federal tenant-protection talk feed into guidance.

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