Denver Metro Among Top 20 Metros With Most Built-To-Rent Houses

LITTLETON, CO — According to a new report from RentCafe — a national apartment search website — communities of built-to-rent houses are becoming a powerful trend. And the Denver Metro area, with some 1,310 houses in these built-to-rent communities, has ranked No. 18 on a list of the top 20 metros in the country for built-to-rent homes.

In 2021, nearly 7,000 of these built-to-rent homes — dubbed "horizontal apartments" by some — were built in the United States, up from 1,740 of these homes built in 2013, the report says. In 2022, there are already nearly 14,000 of these homes under construction.

RentCafe attributes this recent surge in the demand for these "horizontal apartments" to the pandemic, saying that it "created an unprecedented demand among renters for space and privacy, which houses can address much better than apartments."

In a recent survey conducted by RentCafe, 78 percent of the 3,300 renters polled said that they would be interested in living in one of these built-to-rent housing communities, according to the report.

The survey, which ran from Dec. 17-29, used data collected by Yardi Matrix, a sister company to RentCafe.

"There is a misconception that the majority of renters are Millennials when, in reality, you have everyone — including college students, empty nesters, families with kids, pet owners, and those wanting to downsize," Shannon Hersker with Walker & Dunlop said.

Though these communities exist in both urban and suburban environments, a majority (61 percent) are in the suburbs, something that the report says aligns with the results of their survey — 29 percent of respondents said they chose a single-family rental for more space, and 19 percent said that these rentals are more attractive when in "a quite, family-friendly area in the suburbs."

"The pandemic just increased demand at a faster pace," Hersker said. "People want to live in areas that are less dense, in communities that offer more space."