Investors buy built-to-rent Riverview townhouses
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 2, 2024

A built-to-rent townhouse community in South Hillsborough County has sold for $31.8 million.

D.R. Horton sold Oak Haven, a 120-unit townhouse community in Riverview, to Ark Homes for Rent on March 28, according to Hillsborough County property records. The purchase price breaks down to $265,000 per unit.

Prudential Insurance Co. of America provided a $19.7 million mortgage for the acquisition, property records show.

Oak Haven was completed in 2022. Three-bedroom, 1,637-square-foot townhouses rent for around $2,440, according to Ark's website.

Communities of built-to-rent single-family homes have become increasingly popular with investors and developers in the Tampa Bay region. The properties attract renters who prefer a single-family home lifestyle but offer owners the operational and management efficiencies of a traditional multifamily complex. The number of built-to-rent properties here doubled between 2018 and 2023, according to data from RentCafe.

Beyond townhouses, some built-to-rent communities offer manufactured homes and repurposed shipping containers. In 2023, built-to-rent projects broke ground in Wesley Chapel and Sarasota. Two built-to-rent properties in the Sarasota area have changed hands via forward sales, meaning the buyer and seller have entered an agreement to sell at a future date.