SOUTH FULTON, Ga. – Build-to-rent is a growing housing trend that seeks to find a market between homeownership and apartment rental.

This trend is increasingly taking root in the Atlanta metro area. Builders build single-family home subdivisions not to sell, but to rent.

Before Thanksgiving, NexMetro Communities will begin pre-leasing the South Pines subdivision, which is still under construction, in South Fulton.

There will be 193 two-story, two- and three-bedroom townhomes with one-car garages and backyards. Square footage ranges from 1,332 to 1,483 square feet.

NexMetro has similar build-to-lease projects in Phoenix, DFW, Austin, Denver and Tampa, with more in store for the Atlanta metro area.

The general manager of its Atlanta-area projects says the company hopes to attract young professionals and empty nesters.

“We have a lot of single women who are looking for the privacy we offer with the portals,” said Jason Flory, general manager of NexMetro Communities Atlanta. “We take care of all the interior and exterior maintenance of the house.”

Across much of metro Atlanta, you’ll find more of these build-to-rent neighborhoods. Taylor Shelton, a geography professor at Georgia State University, sees the BTR trend as similar to the decade-long trend he has studied: business owners buying large numbers of single-family homes in established neighborhoods to rent out .

It’s often the same companies that operate in both areas,” says Taylor.

According to his research, which is as of January 2022, in the top five counties there were a total of 32,028 single-family rental properties owned by the 10 largest corporate single-family rental landlords. Five thousand five hundred and ninety-three of these properties were located in Fulton County.

Taylor’s findings have concerned some.

“We find that these companies tend to raise rents and add what are called unwanted fees and large rates,” Taylor says. “We also know that these businesses are the most common subjects of complaints to law enforcement in Atlanta and across the country.”

Taylor says there’s still a lot to study, and he wouldn’t go so far as to say there’s evidence that this trend is causing neighboring homeowners to see their property values ​​decline.

“I don’t know if we have enough information that this causes a devaluation of other people’s assets.

Flory emphasizes that dispersed single-family projects are more likely to have maintenance issues.

“The main difference is that we have a professional maintenance and management team on site to ensure these homes remain well maintained,” Flory explains. “If we’re going to charge $2,000 a month, we need to be able to maintain that and give them (customers) the quality they deserve.”