Single-Family Rental (SFR) Financing

Alston & Bird’s Single-Family Rental (SFR) Financing Team is well-positioned to assist with the full range of transactions that your organization may deal with or cover. We work with banks, private lenders, operators, developers, securitization issuers, and rating agencies in dozens upon dozens of SFR deals ranging in size from $50 million to $5 billion. Our work involves term and warehouse financings, single-borrower and multiborrower securitizations, joint ventures, funds, private lending platforms, acquisition platforms, equity issuances, real estate acquisitions and dispositions, build-to-rent communities, scattered-site properties, property management, services contracts, and construction contracts. Our SFR practice brings together experts in several substantive areas of law, including finance, corporate, partnerships, real estate, and tax.

Our team is recognized by Best Law Firms as the 2024 Law Firm of the Year in Securitization and Structured Finance Law and by IMN as 2023 SFR Law Firm of the Year, and we are annually ranked by Chambers and IFLR1000 in their ABS and RMBS Securitization, Banking and Capital Markets, Real Estate, and Financial Services Regulatory categories.

Your organization may rest assured that, no matter where you sit in the single-family rental asset class, with Alston & Bird you’ll find a leading, experienced, and accomplished provider of legal counsel to the SFR industry.

Term & Warehouse Financings

• Represented lenders and borrowers in over 100 term and warehouse SFR lending facilities ranging in size from $50 million – $5 billion.
• Represented a global bank in the first institutional SFR warehouse facility.
• Represented a global asset management company in the first mezzanine SFR warehouse facility.
• Represented an iBuyer platform as borrower’s counsel on multiple warehouse facilities.
• Represented a major real estate developer in multiple construction loans for build-to-rent projects.

Securitizations

• Represented issuers, placement agents, loan sellers, and rating agencies in over 50 single- and multiborrower SFR securitizations.
• Represented the placement agent in the first-ever SFR securitization.
• Represented a digital real estate marketplace on the first-ever iBuyer securitization.
• Represented a rating agency on multiple single-borrower SFR securitizations.

Joint Ventures, Funds, Acquisition Platforms & Equity Issuances

• Represented a global asset management company in multiple joint ventures to invest in SFR properties.
• Represented a real estate investment company in a joint venture to invest in build-to-rent properties.
• Represented a regional real estate developer on multiple joint ventures, including both scattered SFR strategies and build-to-rent strategies, with total expected equity capitalization of $1.8 billion.
• Represented a real estate development, construction, management, and leasing company in a build-to-rent joint venture with an NYSE-listed REIT with expected equity capitalization of $1 billion.
• Represented a real estate development, construction, management, and leasing company in a scattered SFR joint venture with a REIT sponsored by a major private equity firm, with expected equity capitalization of $500 million and with two $500 million additional investment options for the REIT.
• Represented a real estate development, construction, management, and leasing company in the formation of a warehouse fund for the purpose of acquiring scattered SFR assets.
• Represented the operator in a joint venture to develop rental communities of manufactured homes, with expected equity capitalization of $200 million.
• Represented a regional real estate developer in the formation of a commingled investment fund for scattered SFR.
• Represented a major SFR operator in the issuance of convertible notes to provide balance sheet capital.
• Represented a major SFR operator in the issuance of equity interests in a parent company to a significant joint venture partner.
• Negotiated on behalf of a major SFR operator in an option for a major REIT to acquire the operator’s property management platform.
• Represented a multibillion-dollar family office in a $90 million seed investment in an SFR fund, related services contracts, and the related acquisition of an equity interest in an SFR operator.
• Represented a public REIT in the launch of an SFR investment platform and negotiated an exclusivity and services contract with an SFR operator.