Prior to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, industry fundamentals remained firm

Robust investment and available capital drove another strong year for the multifamily industry in 2019, as demonstrated by the National Multifamily Housing Council’s (NMHC) just released 2020 NMHC 50, the sector’s chief ranking of the nation's largest apartment owners, managers, developers, builders and syndicators.

Before the outbreak of COVID-19 and the related economic weakening, the multifamily industry and the sector’s fundamentals were as healthy as they had been in years. While there is clearly going to be significant uncertainty in the days to come, the 2020 NMHC 50 highlights that the apartment industry continues to experience significant demand and is well-positioned to return to growth following the pandemic.

MAA (headquartered in Memphis, Tenn.) stayed atop the list of the country’s largest apartment owners with 100,031 apartment homes owned, breaking the 100,000-unit mark for the second consecutive year.

Greystar Real Estate Partners (headquartered in Charleston, S.C.) remained the largest apartment manager with 492,967 apartments under their management, more than double the next firm on the list.

Alliance Residential (headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz.) retained its place as the largest apartment developer with 8,009 apartments started in 2019 — over 1,000 more units started compared to when they first took the top spot last year.

Summit Contracting Group, Inc. (headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla.) kept their spot as the country’s highest-producing apartment builder, starting 9,065 apartments in 2019, nearly 1,500 more units than the next builder on the list.

PNC Real Estate (headquartered in Portland, Ore.) also stayed on top as the nation’s largest apartment tax credit syndicator with 132,179 apartments syndicated.

“Demographic shifts and preference for renting have resulted in continued strong demand and positive performance for the apartment industry,” said Caitlin Sugrue Walter, Vice President of Research for the National Multifamily Housing Council. “As is evident from the growth on this year’s builders and developers lists, the industry is continuing the pace of production to meet the needs of pent-up demand from years past. In addition, apartment transaction volume surpassed $100 billion for what’s now the seventh consecutive year.”

Additional Industry and NMHC 50 Highlights:

• 2,210,931 – Number of total units owned by NMHC 50 top owners, representing 10.1 percent of the total U.S. apartment stock.
• 3,617,624 – Number of units collectively managed by NMHC 50 top managers, breaking the record for the 12th consecutive year and equating to 16.5 percent of the total U.S. apartment stock.
• 95.8 percent – 2019 apartment occupancy rate according to RealPage, the highest since 2000.
• 343,200 – Number of apartments completed in 2019 according to the Census Bureau, which is 7,600 units (or 2.3%) higher than 2018.
• 249,721 – Net absorptions in 2019 according to RealPage, a 17.3 percent drop from the highs seen last year.
• $183.5 billion – Total multifamily transaction volume in 2019 according to Real Capital Analytics, a record high.

This is the 31st annual edition of the NMHC 50 rankings. NMHC partners with Kingsley Associates, a leading real estate research and consulting firm, to conduct the research for the NMHC 50. All apartment owners, managers, developers, builders and syndicators are invited to answer a survey questionnaire that asks about their prior year's activities. Apartment owners, managers and syndicators are ranked based on their portfolio holdings (either owned, managed or syndicated) as of January 1, 2020, while developers and builders are ranked based on the number of apartment units started in 2019.

View the full rankings here: nmhc.org/the-nmhc-50