Build To Rent developments?
I was working with a developer, who also had a property management division, in 2000-2010 who was building a community. It was originally designed to include apartments, townhouses, ground-floor retail with condominiums above, and traditional homes. It was a great concept, the apartments, and townhomes were the first phases somewhere around 2000 units combined, and the apartments were fully leased precompletion November 2003. The townhomes were essentially completed around the same time, final finish selections were the last items. They struggled to sell, and by Q2 2004 the units unsold were converted to leased units, with some credit toward a down payment if the occupant decided to purchase within the first five years. A couple of units were converted, but most just moved along.
The next phase was the retail space with condos above. Retail space was ready for buildout in Q1 2004, and the condos were ready for final finish in Q2 2004. Blocks of condos were bought by some of the tech companies in the area, but still largely stalled on the market, the same thing happened to the condos as the townhomes.
They talked to the county about decreasing the number of single-family homes and building more townhomes or apartments and were shot down.
Despite the county's decision and because the demand for homes was so high, they felt the first phase of houses was a safe bet. For the most part, the first phase of homes sold, but nearing the end was the mortgage crisis, so banks were being reined in, five homes sat on the market for four months finally selling to a speculator who turned them into rentals. Phases 2 & 3 of houses were eventually built and turned into rentals.
When the project was complete about 300 of the 5000 units built were owner-occupied, and the rest were rental properties. That area is still dominated by rentals, and the income of the tenants is significantly higher than the average income in the area. They would easily qualify for a mortgage but choose not to.