Single-family rental home owners have suffered widespread economic challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey of owners conducted by Seven Letter Insight on behalf of the National Rental Home Council (NRHC).
According to the NRHC, single-family rental homes currently account for more than half of the nation’s total rental housing. Of the survey’s respondents, half of the individual rental home owners had residents who had missed payments since March 2020. As a result, more than one-third of the owners had to dip into their own savings to cover rental shortfalls and costs of ownership, and one in five had taken out additional loans.
Sixty percent of owners who reported receiving less than full rent had been given a financial hardship declaration from residents. Of those who received less than full rent, 52% had created flexible pay programs for residents, and 45% forgave some amount of missed rent.
A majority of owners said they’ve been negatively impacted by the eviction moratorium, in particular. Thirty percent said they will be forced to tighten future rental application evaluation standards, while 11% said they were forced to sell at least one property and 12% forced to sell all their properties. While the nationwide eviction moratorium was set to expire March 31, it was extended through the end of June. With the extension, one in five respondents said they “will have no remaining financial options to cover costs related to their rental property.”
“The financial difficulties encountered by rental home property owners over the past year have created real uncertainty concerning the direction of the rental housing market, uncertainty that has only been exacerbated by myriad local, state, and federal eviction moratoria,” says David Howard, executive director of NRHC. “While rental assistance programs will certainly help, for many property owners it may be too late. There is less rental housing in the United States today than there was five years ago, even as owner-occupied housing has increased nearly 10% during that time. In 2020 alone, the amount of rental housing decreased by over 275,000 units. Even large single-family rental home companies grew their portfolios by only 6,000 units, an amount less than one-tenth of 1% of the 7.6 million homes bought in the U.S. last year.”
