Investors Want Slice of Short-Term Rental Pie

Key Highlights

• Investors embracing Airbnb’s successful business model
• One asset management company looking to spend $1.5B to buy short-term rentals

Short-Term Home Rental Business Model Now Proven

Large- and small-scale investors have been paying attention to Airbnb’s short-term vacation rental business model.  And they want in.

Scott Shatford, CEO of AirDNA, a data and analytics firm that supplies its research to the short-term rental industry, said,  “The business model has been proven, and now the opportunity is to do this at scale.  People can’t figure out how to deploy capital quickly enough.”

Investors Want Their Piece of This Pie

One such large-scale investor based in Ohio, ReAlpha, is intending to spend as much as $1.5B to buy short-term rentals, according to Bloomberg.  This $1.5B would buy approximately 5,000 single-family units, according to Giri Devanue, CEO of ReAlpha.

Target Markets for ReAlpha

Using its artificial intelligence software to evaluate listings, ReAlpha is focusing initially on housing markets in Austin, Miami and Dallas.  Its goal is to scale and operate nationally.

The company is also focused on buying homes that may be foreclosed upon when the federal foreclosure moratorium coms to an end.

Challenges of Short-Term Home Rental Markets

Like every other housing market sector, the shortage of housing inventory, now at its lowest level, is a major hurdle for the short-term rental housing market sector.

Short-term rental investors have to compete with individual homebuyers along with other heavy hitters such as the Blackstone Group that just put down $6B in cash to buy Home Partners of America’s over 17,000 rental homes and KKR that are also keeping their fingers on the pulse to buy and operate even more billions of dollars-worth of single-family home rentals.

Prime Beneficiary of Investor Buying Spree?

The prime beneficiary of this investor buying frenzy for short-term rental units is, of course, Airbnb.  Without having to put out its own dollars to buy short-term rental housing, those investor dollars will come to Airbnb in the form of more listings.  More listings on its platform translates into more users signing up to rent those listings. More users of more Airbnb listings translates into more dollars for Airbnb.  

Thanks to AirDNA, ReAlpha, Inman and Bloomberg.

URGENT: 2021 Results Released. New FREE On-Line Web Event Reveals 17 Surprising Secrets Of The Top 100 Millionaire Agents. Get Your FREE Spot For The On-Line Webinar Now. When You Attend This Event You Will Have A Sense Of Relief Knowing You Can FINALLY Laugh At Your Money Worries – If You Follow This Simple Plan. Learn How To Generate 100’s of Motivated Leads Without Coming Off As A Pushy Salesperson and Losing Your Soul. Learn Now How To Become One of the 1000s of Agents Making HUGE Money NOW Who Never Thought They Could.