2012 NMHC 50 Names Nation's Largest Apartment Owners, Managers

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Washington, D.C.—In a resurgent rental market, the top players are Boston Capital (157,423 units owned) and Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC (192,711 units managed), according to the National Multi Housing Council’s (NMHC) new 2012 NMHC 50—the apartment industry’s annual ranking of the top 50 apartment owners and managers nationwide. View the complete rankings and detailed analysis online at www.nmhc.org/goto/2012NMHC50.

NMHC partners with Kingsley Associates, a leading real estate research and consulting firm, for the NMHC 50′s research and analysis. Among the highlights:

• The Top 50 owners and Top 50 managers groups each grew their collective portfolios by more than 60,000 apartment units in 2011 to 3 million and 2.8 million units in total, respectively. The 2.8 million units managed is the highest on record for the NMHC 50.
• Boston Capital (Boston) retained the top spot on the NMHC 50 owners list with 157,423 units for the third year in a row, and marked its 21st year in the top 10. Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC (Charleston, S.C.) was the largest apartment manager in 2011 for the second year in a row with 192,711 units.
• Many top owners grew their portfolios via new development activities or acquisitions in a play to take share in targeted markets, with 32 firms collectively adding 143,200 units to their portfolios.
• By contrast, 17 were net sellers, dropping 78,098 units. REITs were among the largest in this category. For the fourth year, Aimco (Denver) was the biggest net seller among the NMHC 50, trimming its portfolio by 17,313 units. Equity Residential (Chicago) shed the second largest number of apartments among the NMHC 50 owners, downsizing their holdings by 9,861 units.
• Even with the growth recorded by the NMHC 50, the owners control just 17 percent of the national apartment stock and the managers oversee 15.8 percent.