Case Study: Achievable Rent Analysis for Build-for-Rent, Single-Family Home Community

The Challenge

NexMetro Communities, LLC (“NexMetro”) was formed around the realization that consumers wanted more than just a home: they desired a community. The company was one of the early pioneers in the Build-for-Rent (“BFR”) space, introducing the first Avilla-brand community in Phoenix in 2015. In this engagement, NexMetro was seeking to develop a new Avilla lifestyle community in Grand Prairie, Texas, situated in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The new 14-acre community was planned to include 134 single-family detached rental units with a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. In evaluating the development potential of this new community, NexMetro retained RCLCO to complete a third-party market analysis to determine achievable positioning and rental rates for the property.

Solution

RCLCO has worked on asset-level market studies with NexMetro since 2014 and has provided strategic guidance as they continue to refine the Avilla concept. For the Grand Prairie site, RCLCO conducted a thorough analysis of the site’s competitive positioning relative to the area’s newest institutional-quality apartment communities – the most relevant comparables to the “horizontal multifamily” program planned on-site and recommended rental rates near the top of the local market. RCLCO also determined that there was likely to continue to be high demand for rental housing and that rental rates would continue to increase in the years ahead.

Impact

Avilla Heritage was able to set its pricing with confidence near the top of the local rental market. The community opened in 2019 as its third community in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. We continue to work with NexMetro to refine their program and pricing assumptions to each specific site and the market they enter and provide strategic guidance regarding their growth and expansion.

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