Single-Family and Build-to-Rent: Why Your Lender’s Tenure Is an Asset

Single-family rental (SFR) is among the fastest-growing and best-performing asset classes within commercial real estate and now makes up about one-third of all renter households. As housing demand outpaces supply, the build-to-rent (BTR) market is one to watch in 2024. Despite a challenging economic environment, there were 75,000 BTR construction starts last year, an increase of 8.7% over the year before.

Due to increased demand for SFR/BTR financing, your lender’s level of expertise matters even more now. Arbor, which has more than 30 years of experience serving multifamily borrowers, has a high repeat sponsor rate that is a testament to our best-in-class service.

Experience and consistency build reliability and trust

Arbor has a longstanding SFR/BTR lending practice, managed by Steven Katz, Executive Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, whose over 10 years of experience at Arbor follows a long career in mortgage trading, securitization, banking and servicing. Our closely-knit SFR/BTR team partnered with Arbor’s originators to close SFR loans totaling more than $1.2 billion in 2023. This group of experienced professionals has built a high level of trust among agency partners, clients, and borrowers, developed through a consistent pursuit of excellence.

We remain active in challenging market conditions

Regardless of market conditions, Arbor is always there to support our clients. Over the last quarter century, we’ve assisted thousands of borrowers with financing multifamily housing in all regions of the country. When other lenders pulled back as interest rates rose, Arbor stayed at the table – and has shown our strength in delivering results in volatile markets.

We help with all phases of your evolving financing needs

Arbor’s John Tarantino, Senior Vice President, Screening, Single-Family Rental Underwriting and an experienced member of Katz’s team, explains why Arbor is the single-family rental lender of choice: “Not only do our clients benefit from our ability to leverage our Agency relationships, but borrowers can take advantage of beginning-to-end financing options through each phase of an SFR multifamily project, from land through development and construction.”

Arbor excels at providing personal service to the growing SFR/BTR sector. Our keen understanding of the challenges unique to SFR/BTR, such as structuring deals, helps us provide nimble client service, a potential game-changer when land costs fluctuate or availability is limited.

We offer a complete range of SFR/BTR financing products

Whether it is for a build-to-rent community, purchasing properties and holding for the long term, or acquiring investments to rehabilitate, Arbor has an array of short-term and long-term financing options available to SFR investors:

If SFR and BTR’s growth potential appeals to you, we believe you will strongly benefit from working with our team of multifamily lenders with decades of experience in navigating these options and creatively combining those that will best finance your deal.

Article updated on March 22, 2024

Interested in the multifamily real estate investment market? Contact Arbor today to learn about our array of multifamily and single-family rental financing options and view our other market research and multifamily posts in our research section.