The National Multifamily Housing Council, the powerful landlord lobbying group based in Washington D.C., has released a new ranking of the nation’s largest corporate landlords. What becomes clear is that as Big Real Estate continues to grow, more tenants across the United States will be renting from corporate landlords, who routinely charge excessive rents to grow outsized profits. More than ever, rent control is needed to rein them in.
Every year, the National Multifamily Housing Council ranks the top 50 owners of rental units in the country. Those corporate landlords operate in multiple states, usually in major cities such as Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles, where they charge top-dollar rents.
Many of them have also used RealPage software to collude and wildly inflate rents, regardless of conditions in the rental-housing market. ProPublica exposed that collusion in 2022, triggering multiple antitrust lawsuits and investigations, including a lawsuit by the Department of Justice and several state attorneys general.
Several of those corporate landlords that used RealPage software also contributed millions in campaign cash to stop Proposition 33 in California, which aimed to end statewide rent control restrictions and allow cities to pass updated rent regulations. Housing Is A Human Right revealed that fact in 2024, finding RealPage clients Greystar, Equity Residential, Essex Property, UDR, and Camden Property Trust were shelling out big bucks to kill Prop 33. The initiative, as a result, was defeated in November 2024.
NMHC’s new top 50 list shows that many of those corporate landlords continue to grow, emphasizing the need to end rent control bans in more than 30 states and to pass stronger rent regulations. As experts have pointed out, rent control is the only tool that effectively stops the predatory business practices of Big Real Estate and urgently addresses the housing affordability crisis in the United States.
To that end, Housing Is A Human Right advocates for a multi-pronged approach, called the “3 Ps,” to solve the housing affordability crisis, which fuels homelessness throughout the country – a prominent UC San Francisco study found that people are pushed into the streets by skyrocketing rents.
Unlike the trickle-down housing agenda promoted by corporate landlords and major YIMBY groups such as California YIMBY and YIMBY Action, the 3 Ps directly help poor and middle- and working-class renters who are hit hardest by the housing affordability and homelessness crises: protect tenants through rent control and other protections; preserve existing affordable housing, don’t demolish it for new luxury housing; and produce new affordable and homeless housing through the adaptive reuse of existing buildings and other cost-effective construction methods.
The largest corporate landlord in the country, according to NMHC, is Greystar with 122,545 units, up from 109,341 apartments in 2024. Number two on the top 50 list is MAA, with 102,348 units – the corporate landlord owned 100,894 apartments in 2024.
The remaining corporate landlords ranked highest in the top 50 list include Morgan Properties at number three with 96,727 units (up from 92,935 in 2024); Nuveen Real Estate at number four with 86,586 units (up from 84,697); Equity Residential at number five with 84,249 units (up from 80,191); AvalonBay Communities at number six with 84,058 units (up from 82,565); The Related Companies at number seven with 83,839 units (up from 72,423); Monarch Investment & Management Group at number eight with 75,871 units (up from 73,026); Cortland at number nine with 73,479 units (down from 74,831); and Edward Rose Building Enterprise at number 10 with 71,591 units (up from 70,658).
Other corporate landlords of note include Essex Property at number 13 with 62,510 units (up from 62,261 in 2024); UDR at number 15 with 60,123 units (up from 59,762); Camden Property Trust at number 16 with 58,858 units (up from 58,634); GID at number 20 with 56,724 units (up from 55,454); and MG Properties at number 36 with 32,158 units (up from 28,095).
Greystar, Equity Residential, AvalonBay Communities, The Related Companies, Essex Property Trust, UDR, Camden Property Trust, GID, and MG Properties contributed, in total, tens of millions in campaign cash to stop Prop 33 in California. Essex Property Trust was the leading contributor, shelling out a staggering $32 million.
Without proper rent regulations to keep corporate landlords in check, tenants will continue to fork over huge chunks of their paychecks each month for unfair, sky-high rents.
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