Dive Brief:

• Greystar Real Estate Partners has claimed the No. 1 spot on the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Top 50 Managers list for the 11th straight year. The Charleston, South Carolina-based owner, manager, developer and builder gained almost 30,000 units in 2021, putting it at 698,257 under management. Over the past decade, Greystar has added roughly 500,000 units.
• Two Dallas-based companies, Lincoln Property Co. and Cushman & Wakefield (formerly Pinnacle) came in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, for the eighth straight year. There was a change in the No. 4 and No. 5 spots with Houston-based Asset Living switching places with Folsom, California-based FPI Management. Asset Living grabbed more than 50,000 new units in 2021, including gaining 10,000 in the November purchase of Dallas-based City Gate Property Group.
• Although Greystar and other major players have built massive portfolios, the top 10 manage only 7.9% of national apartment stock, according to NMHC analysis of data from the American Housing Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau. The top 25 and the top 50 manage 12.4% and 17.1% of U.S. housing stock, respectively.

Dive Insight:

Austin-based RPM Living grabbed more than 30,000 units, propelling it from No. 11 on the 2021 NMHC Top 50 to No. 7 in 2022. It pushed King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, manager Morgan Properties out of the top 10.

With its 30,000-unit pickup, RPM Living was the only newcomer at the top of the NMHC manager’s list. Rounding out the top 10 were these returnees:

• Cottonwood Heights, Utah-based Apartment Management Consultants (moving from No. 8 to No. 6).
• Des Moines, Iowa-based BH (moving from No. 9 to No. 8).
• Boston-based WinnCompanies (falling from No. 6 to No. 9 though it gained almost 2,000 units).
• Memphis-based REIT MAA (falling from No. 7 to No. 10 as it lost around 400 units).

Overall, only two new companies — Boston-based GID and Philadelphia-based Independence Realty Trust (which also debuted on the NMHC Top 50 Owners list) — joined the list. Dallas-based Westdale Real Estate Investment & Management and Atlanta-based Cortland didn’t appear on this year’s list.

In addition to Asset Living and RPM, some of the most notable movers from 2021 to 2022 included: 

• Atlanta-based RangeWater Real Estate (rose 16 spots).
• Norfolk, Virginia-based Harbor Group International (rose 11 spots).
• San Francisco-based FPA Multifamily (rose five spots).

Many of the fastest-growing managers are in the Southeast. That doesn’t appear to be a coincidence. 

“Think about where people want to live,” said Caitlin Sugrue Walter, Ph.D., vice president of research for the NMHC. “They want to live in the Southeast.”

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