Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is the latest Wall Street giant to plant its flag on Main Street lawns.
Brookfield recently acquired a controlling stake in single-family landlord Conrex, which operates more
than 10,000 rental homes across the Midwest and Southeastern U.S., according to people familiar with
the matter who asked not to be named because the transaction isn’t public.
In addition, Brookfield has raised $300 million, including some of its own capital, for a vehicle called
Brookfield Single Family Rental that will acquire and renovate homes. The firm intends to leverage the
Conrex platform for that effort, one of the people added.
Wall Street discovered single-family rentals, once the domain of mom-and-pop landlords, in the
aftermath of the U.S. foreclosure crisis, when firms like Blackstone Group Inc. and Starwood Property
Trust Inc. spent billions buying up distressed assets.
Rent collections on single-family homes have held up during the pandemic, and large investors have
continued to ink deals for the properties. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s asset-management more than
doubled its investment in a joint venture to develop roughly 2,500 rental houses with landlord
American Homes 4 Rent, according to a statement in May.
That same month, Koch Industries Inc.’s real estate arm invested $200 million in Amherst Holdings
LLC’s single-family rental business.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-21/brookfield-bets-on-single-family-rentals-with-300-million-fund 