Need to Rent? More Development in Works for Already-Hot Home Rental Surge in D-FW

The Dallas area is one of the top U.S. markets for new single-family home rental communities and three new developments will soon contribute to that surge.

In the past week alone, these announcements dropped:

• Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taylor Morrison and Mesa-based Christopher Todd Communities said they would collaborate on the development of 251 single-family homes in Lavon and 188 in Saginaw.
• Mill Creek Residential broke ground on a community of 271 cottages, townhomes, and traditional homes in the Collin County boomtown of Celina.

The rent-to-build industry is getting serious in North Texas. According to a RentCafé report last month, Dallas ranked third nationally with a total of 4,290 houses in build-to-rent communities. Nationally, 14,000 single-family homes are being built in rental communities, more than double last year’s construction.

The nation’s largest rental homebuilder is Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns more than 80,000 rental homes. In North Texas, Phoenix-based NexMetro and Arlington-based D.R. Horton have emerged as the largest build-to-rent developers with thousands of homes completed.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taylor Morrison is establishing its build-to-rent housing footprint in North Texas via a lineup of newly purchased land sites in Grand Prairie, Celina, Denton, Melissa, Lavon, and Saginaw. The six projects will combine for more than 1,300 residences in the next few years. Each community will be branded as a Christopher Todd Communities Built By Taylor Morrison.

“Our Build-To-Rent division is off to a great start in DFW,” Darin Rowe, Taylor Morrison’s Build-To-Rent National president, said in a release.

The Lavon project will be part of developer MA Partners’ Elevon master-planned community and will include more than 4,500 single-family homes, 1,000 multifamily units, an 80-acre business park, and more than 100 acres of retail.

Taylor Morrison also closed on land in Saginaw for the 188-unit Christopher Todd Communities At Beltmill, which will be on the northeast corner of Saginaw Boulevard and Bailey Boswell Road. Beltmill is a 115-acre mixed-use community that consists of single-family homes, multi-family, senior living, and retail and restaurants. Learn more about these communities here.

In Celina, Boca Raton, Fla.-based Mill Creek Residential has started on Amavi Celina. The 45-acre development will be Mill Creek’s first single-family rental community in Texas. Learn more here.

Amavi Celina is being developed on the southeast corner of Coit Road and Choate Parkway, about one mile east of Preston Road with access to the Dallas North Tollway,

“We are strategically targeting locales such as Celina that exhibit strong characteristics for single-family rental demand, and we are eager to join the area and help address the increasing need for quality rental living options,” Callum Parrott, Mill Creek Residential president of single-family rentals, said in a release.