About David Singelyn
David Singelyn, CEO of American Homes 4 Rent, has stated that the company prioritizes the "human aspect" of natural disasters over assets, citing preparations for Hurricane Ian such as boarding up homes and creating safe places for employees. He said that for impacted tenants, the company would look for alternative housing or cancel their lease and return 100% of their security deposit. Singelyn also noted that the company assesses climate risk when acquiring properties and that it is "much better prepared" than it was five or ten years ago.
Singelyn has described the single-family rental industry as "revolutionized" by professional management and said the company is "part of the solution" to the housing shortage by building homes that are "meaningfully less expensive to rent compared to homeownership." He attributed rising demand for rentals to factors including remote work and a desire for mobility, and stated that COVID-19 "accelerated" a pre-existing trend. Regarding interest rates, Singelyn said they impact the company's cost of capital but noted the firm has "tremendous liquidity" and an in-house development program. He described evictions as a "last resort" and said the company saw "relatively favorable collection results" during the pandemic.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from David Singelyn's recent appearances.
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Transcript (13 segments)
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Narrator0:02
Point. We are waiting for that inflation data.
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Diana Olick0:09
One of the nation's most powerful single-family landlords is getting into the home building business. Diana Olick joins us from just outside Charlotte, North Carolina with the story. Hi, Diana.
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Reporter0:27
This is a grand new community built by American Homes for Rent. I sat down with the CEO to talk about his new strategy of becoming a homebuilder.
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David Singelyn0:39
It's more the production of homes for rentals, because this country is under supply in rentals. And today American Homes is building high-quality single-family rentals, as you can see in this community, with the conveniences and the amenities and the sense of community that our renters are looking for.
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Interviewer1:00
So what should investors think when they were buying a stock as a landlord? Now you're a home builder as well.
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David Singelyn1:13
Five years ago there was little certainty: Do we understand the risk? Do we execute? The investors have come back. They love the concept. We have people come to us because of the build-to-rent concept. There are $50 billion chasing build-to-rent in the last 24 months.
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Interviewer1:47
Why is your stock down along with the builders?
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David Singelyn1:51
Real estate is an interest-rate-sensitive industry, and the value of real estate is inverse to the interest rate. So all of real estate is down. We have actually performed about... performed better in the last six weeks than the whole industry as a whole.
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Reporter2:15
Big names are getting involved. In the first quarter of this year, 13,000 new homes were started as rental, an increase of nearly 63% from the same quarter one year ago. Becky?
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Interviewer2:36
This is such a fascinating story. Who's the market this is kind of targeting? Sure, the home market may be undersupplied. And if you did rent, do you ever get to the point where can you buy? Is this like Rent-a-Center, or is this where you can save enough to buy a house?
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Reporter3:12
I spoke to a couple who just moved here. They had come from California. They simply didn't want to buy right now. They said it's the top of the market, didn't want to catch a falling knife. You look around here, these are brand-new homes, the rents are four-bedroom, $2400. There's a Porsche sitting right over there. Some millennials don't want to buy because they know the market's going to be difficult, they may not see the returns that they want. They also want the mobility. The people I spoke to yesterday can work remotely now, they moved to North Carolina from California because they wanted to be closer to family. That's what we're hearing over and over again, and that's what these homebuilders are banking on.
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Interviewer4:05
If you have these others getting into it, does that mean it's going to keep prices flated for even longer?
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Reporter4:25
Longer. That's the story. Is it the chicken or the egg? The big landlords are becoming...
