{"id":105,"date":"2026-05-22T22:07:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=105"},"modified":"2026-05-22T22:07:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:07:46","slug":"private-equity-now-owns-1-in-8-apartment-units-a-50-percent-increase-since-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=105","title":{"rendered":"Private Equity Now Owns 1 in 8 Apartment Units, a 50 Percent Increase Since 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with <\/span><\/i>a donation<\/span><\/i>.<\/p>\n

Read more Resistance to Flock Cameras and Police Surveillance Is Exploding<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A new report by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) shows that private equity firms now own almost 3 million apartment units in the U.S., which amounts to one in eight apartment units, some 13 percent of apartment units in the country. Approximately half of these units were bought since 2021, highlighting private equity\u2019s turn to the housing market even as the U.S. suffers from a housing crisis.<\/p>\n

Private equity firms invest money from pension funds and endowments to buy assets in order to make significant profit. In the housing market, private equity firms look for rents that are unregulated, with capped property taxes, in order to maximize their profits. According to the private equity business model, firms aim to increase the value of buildings before quickly selling them for a higher profit. <\/p>\n

The PESP report found that private equity companies bought up almost 1.7 million apartment units \u2014 some 57 percent \u2014 since 2018, and 1.3 million of them since just 2021. <\/p>\n

PESP\u2019s report found that private equity\u2019s expanded presence in the housing market \u201chas exacerbated housing affordability issues, displacing local communities through large rent hikes and aggressive evictions, and diminishing tenants\u2019 quality of life.\u201d <\/p>\n

Texas has the largest number of apartments owned by private equity in the country, with almost 580,000 units \u2014 and this is likely due to the state\u2019s lenient zoning regulations, weak tenant protections, and lack of state income tax. Though there is a high level of private equity ownership of apartments in New York, California, and the Washington, D.C. area, private equity ownership is concentrated in the Sunbelt states as they have weaker tenant protections and also have seen significant population growth since 2020. <\/p>\n

Blackstone, the world\u2019s largest private equity firm, is also the largest owner of apartments in the U.S., owning over 230,000 apartment units. The PESP report found that in some cases, Blackstone raised apartment rents in buildings it bought since 2018 by over 30 percent. The report also noted that tenants in apartments bought by Blackstone have complained of \u201cmaintenance issues, aggressive evictions, undisclosed add-on fees, and large rent hikes.\u201d This was not unusual in apartments acquired by private equity investors. <\/p>\n

Read more Trump Celebrates Colbert\u2019s Ouster at Hands of CBS Owners Aligned with His Administration<\/a><\/p>\n

Private equity\u2019s expansion into housing comes at the same time as Americans are increasingly struggling to afford rent. Half of U.S. renters spend nearly a third of their income on rent. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur country is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. The last thing we need is private equity billionaires extracting wealth from tenants through unaffordable rents and junk fees,\u201d said Jordan Ash, co-author of the report and director of housing research at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP). \u201cNow more than ever, policymakers should take action to protect tenants from the private equity industry\u2019s widespread infiltration of the U.S. housing market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though private equity has rapidly encroached into the housing market over the past five years, the problem started earlier. During the 2008 financial crisis, private equity investors bought up hundreds of apartment buildings that held thousands of rent-regulated units, and pressured residents to leave so that they could raise rent prices. Intent on high profits, private equity firms have \u201cat times led the market in rent increases and mortgage foreclosures.\u201d While millions of Americans were financially devastated in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession, private equity firms profited.<\/p>\n

A 2022 analysis by ProPublica<\/em> found that the encroachment of private equity into housing has been fueled in part by Freddie Mac, the U.S.\u2019s largest rental housing finance company. Freddie Mac offered lower interest rates and other advantages to investors. ProPublica<\/em> found that large private equity firms made up the vast majority of Freddie Mac\u2019s deals financing apartment complex purchases, and almost all of these occurred after 2015. <\/p>\n

ProPublica <\/em>also found that another real estate investment company, Greystar, had helped pave the way in connecting large investors with apartment complexes, by raising funds from pension funds, hedge funds, and life insurance companies. Greystar\u2019s acquired apartments nearly doubled between 2016 and 2021 to over 75,000 apartments. <\/p>\n

But grassroots mobilization against private equity has also been growing, with activists and communities organizing tenant unions and taking up lawsuits to protect tenants. <\/p>\n

Read more Rubio Baselessly Smears Bolivia\u2019s Protesters as \u201cCriminals and Drug Traffickers\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Private equity\u2019s expansion into housing comes at the same time as Americans are increasingly struggling to afford rent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy-labor"],"yoast_head":"\nPrivate Equity Now Owns 1 in 8 Apartment Units, a 50 Percent Increase Since 2021 - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=105\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Private Equity Now Owns 1 in 8 Apartment Units, a 50 Percent Increase Since 2021 - 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