On November 29, 2022, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau (Census) released data from the 2021 Rental Housing Finance Survey (RHFS), a triennial survey of the residential rental housing stock in the United States.¹ The 2021 RHFS provides information on the rental housing stock in 2020, including information on ownership, management, housing configuration and amenities, finances, and government subsidies. Data are available on both rental properties (i.e., one or more buildings commonly financed) and units (i.e., individual residences).

This report uses the 2021 RHFS data to examine the profile of investors that owned rental housing in 2020. It first presents selected statistics that summarize the investor landscape, followed by selected key observations and considerations. More detailed data from which these statistics and observations are derived are presented in Table 1 through Table 4. These nationally aggregated data may not match the ownership landscape in a given local housing market. An online table creator provided by Census allows users to explore the 2021 RHFS data along other dimensions.²

Summary of the 2020 Rental Housing Ownership Data

Selected statistics that summarize rental property ownership in 2020 include the following:

• There were 19.3 million rental properties, 85.6% of which were single unit properties.
• There were 49.5 million rental units, 33.4% of which were located in single unit properties and 33.1% of which were located in properties with 150 units or more. The remaining third of units were located in properties with between 2 and 149 units.
• Individual investors owned 70.2% of rental properties.
• Individual investors owned 37.6% of rental units, but owned 70.2% of rental units located in properties with four or fewer units.
• Limited liability partnerships (LLPs), limited partnerships (LPs), and limited liability corporations (LLCs) owned 15.4% of rental properties.
• LLPs, LPs, and LLCs owned 40.4% of rental units, but owned 67.8% of units located in properties with 100 or more units.
• Real estate investment trusts (REITs) and real estate corporations combined to own 1.2% of rental properties and 4.3% of rental units.
• The remaining forms of ownership combined to own 8.7% of properties. These forms include trustee for estate (2.7%), tenant in common (2.6%), general partnership (0.7%), housing cooperative organization (0.05%), nonprofit organization (1.4%), and other (1.3%).
• The remaining forms of ownership combined to own 9.2% of rental units: trustee for estate (2.1%), tenant in common (1.2%), general partnership (1.7%), housing cooperative organization (0.1%), nonprofit organization (2.3%), and other (1.7%).
• The nonresponse rate to property ownership was 4.5%; it was 8.5% for unit ownership.

Selected Key Data Observations and Considerations

Selected key observations and considerations about the 2020 rental housing investor landscape include the following:

• Individual investors and LLPs, LPs, and LLCs combined to own the largest shares of the rental housing stock (85.6% of properties and 78.0% of units).
• LLPs, LPs, and LLCs are not typically subject to the federal corporate tax. Instead, income "passes through" these businesses to the individual owners, who pay taxes on the income according to the individual income tax system.³
• Individual investors tend to have the largest ownership shares in smaller-sized properties (i.e., properties with fewer units), while LLPs, LPs, and LLCs tend to have the largest ownership shares in larger-sized properties.
• Some investors classified as either an LLP, LP, or LLC may be individual owners who have structured their ownership through one of these business forms rather than "larger" or "institutional" investors operating in one of these forms.
• Some owners more typically thought of as individual or "small" investors may fall under the tenant in common classification. Tenancy in common is one way multiple investors in the same property can choose to collectively own the property, and which determines how an individual investor's ownership shares are dealt with upon death of the investor.
• REITs and real estate corporations have a relatively small ownership share nationally, but could have a significant presence in certain markets.
• A REIT is a company that would otherwise be taxed as a corporation except that it meets certain requirements, mainly that most of its assets and income are invested in and derived from real estate, and that it distributes nearly all of its profits to shareholders.

Rental Housing Ownership Data

Presented below are the full 2021 RHFS data on 2020 property and unit ownership as constructed from the Census's online table creator.⁴ Presented first are the data on the number and share of properties by ownership type and size of the property, followed by the data on the number and share of units by ownership type and size of the property.

Rental Property Ownership

Rental Unit Ownership