WASHINGTON, D.C. — The multifamily industry remained strong last year, as demonstrated in the National Multifamily Housing Council's (NMHC) newly released 2019 NMHC 50—the definitive ranking of the nation's largest apartment owners, managers, developers, builders and syndicators.
MAA (headquartered in Memphis, Tenn.) remained the country's largest apartment owner, breaking the 100,000-unit mark, with 100,864 apartment homes owned.
Greystar Real Estate Partners (headquartered in Charleston, S.C.) also retained its place as the largest apartment manager, with 451,180 apartments under management.
Alliance Residential (headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz.) rose three spots to become the top developer this year with 6,935 apartments started in 2018 — that's over 1,000 more units started than the next developer on the list.
Summit Contracting Group, Inc. (headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla.) stayed on top as the nation's highest-producing apartment builder, starting 8,828 apartments in 2018, up more than 2,000 units from last year.
PNC Real Estate (headquartered in Portland, Ore.) became the country's largest apartment tax credit syndicator with 136,447 apartments syndicated.
"Industry performance in 2018 was quite similar to that of the prior year—and the newest NMHC 50 rankings reflect that," said Caitlin Walter, Vice President of Research. "For years, the increase in demand for apartments outstripped the growth in supply. The recent pickup in the annual pace of apartment production has brought new supply roughly in line with demand, at least nationally."
Additional industry and NMHC 50 highlights:
- 2,122,748 – Number of units collectively owned by the firms on the NMHC 50 top owners list, representing 9.9 percent of the total apartment stock in the U.S.
- 3,405,227 – Number of total units managed by the firms on the NMHC 50 top managers list, an all-time high, representing 15.9 percent of the total apartment stock.
- 95.4 percent – Apartment occupancy rate in 2018, according to RealPage; this is slightly higher than last year's rate and the highest on record since 2000.
- 338,300 – Number of apartments completed in 2018 according to the Census Bureau—just slightly lower than last year.
- 323,290 – Net absorptions of apartments in 2018, indicating strong demand for apartment homes.
- $172.6 billion – Total multifamily transaction volume for 2018 according to Real Capital Analytics, another record high.
This is the 30th year NMHC has released its top 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, 2019, while developers and builders are ranked based on the number of apartment units started in 2018.
For more details about the NMHC 50, including historical information, visit www.nmhc.org/the-nmhc-50
About the National Multifamily Housing Council
Based in Washington, D.C., the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) is the leadership of the trillion-dollar apartment industry. We bring together the prominent apartment owners, managers and developers who help create thriving communities by providing apartment homes for 39 million Americans. NMHC provides a forum for insight, advocacy and action that enables both members and the communities they help build to thrive. For more information, contact NMHC at 202/974-2300, email the Council at info@nmhc.org, or visit NMHC's web site at www.nmhc.org
About Kingsley Associates
Since 1985, real estate leaders have turned to Kingsley Associates to maximize their portfolio and organizational performance. Our comprehensive suite of research and benchmarking tools assess firm performance and competitive position based on direct feedback from key stakeholders. Kingsley's primary services include resident and tenant experience surveys, employee engagement studies, client /investor experience surveys, and peer benchmarking programs. In response to the need for performance-based benchmarks, Kingsley Associates developed the Kingsley IndexSM, which is now the largest and most comprehensive database of customer satisfaction metrics available to the real estate industry. To learn more, please visit our website kingsleyassociates.com or email at kainfo@kingsleyassociates.com.
